Age Discrimination

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether the Government plans to bring forward legislation to prevent age discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services.

Meg Munn: I have been asked to reply.
	The Discrimination Law Review is considering whether there is a case for prohibiting age discrimination in the provisions of goods, facilities and services. We expect to publish a Green Paper early next year. The Green Paper is intended to lead to a Single Equality Bill, in line with the Government's manifesto to introduce such a Bill this Parliament.

Civil Nuclear Constabulary

Shailesh Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many officers were employed by the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and its predecessor body the UK Atomic Energy Authority Police in each of the last 10 years.

Malcolm Wicks: holding answer 28 November 2006
	The numbers of officers employed by the Civil Nuclear Police Authority and its predecessor were (at 31 March each year):
	
		
			  Number 
			 1996 483 
			 1997 473 
			 1998 471 
			 1999 519 
			 2000 531 
			 2001 539 
			 2002 557 
			 2003 569 
			 2004 568 
			 2005 616 
			 2006 658

Energy Bills

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the average domestic  (a) electricity and  (b) gas bill was in England in each year since 1996-97.

Malcolm Wicks: The average domestic electricity and gas bills for England and Wales are shown as follows. The data presented is for standard credit customers in cash terms, it has not been adjusted for inflation.
	
		
			  £ 
			   Electricity bill  Gas bill 
			 1996 295 330 
			 1997 283 328 
			 1998 266 315 
			 1999 260 304 
			 2000 253 295 
			 2001 246 293 
			 2002 244 310 
			 2003 245 320 
			 2004 251 333 
			 2005 281 386 
			 2006(1) 329 474 
			 (1) Provisional.

Enterprise Areas

Mark Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many designated enterprise areas there are; and how many businesses were based in these areas  (a) in 2003 and  (b) on the latest date for which figures are available.

Margaret Hodge: There are 1,997 Enterprise Areas in the UK. These comprise the 15 per cent. most deprived of wards/areas in England and Scotland and the 42 per cent. most deprived of wards in Wales and Northern Ireland.
	The latest data publicly available shows that in March 2000 there were over 235,000 VAT-registered enterprises in English Enterprise Areas and around 25,000 VAT-registered enterprises in Welsh Enterprise Areas. No data is publicly available for Scotland or Northern Ireland.
	Data on business stock in Enterprise Areas for 2003 and subsequent years is not available due to changes to the geographic defunctions for which this information is held. These figures could be produced only at disproportionate cost.
	The VAT registered business stock does not represent all businesses. Businesses are unlikely to be registered if their turnover falls below the compulsory VAT threshold, which was £51,000 at the start of 2000. Only 1.7 million out of 3.7 million businesses in the UK (46 per cent.) were registered for VAT at the start of 2000.

Gas Industry

John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will assess the effects on UK gas prices of the storage practices of overseas gas companies which import gas into the UK; and if he will make a statement.

Malcolm Wicks: holding answer 23 November 2006
	Subject to their regulatory obligations, it is up to gas suppliers how they balance their supply-demand position. The European Commission has undertaken a sectoral inquiry, which has identified access to long-term downstream contracts, capacity on pipelines and gas storage as priorities for individual competition investigations. The commission aims to reach conclusions by January 2007, and will then pursue infringement of EU competition law as appropriate.
	It is not practical to provide the particular estimates that the hon. Member requests, because that would require detailed market assessments against a hypothetical model of how the continental and GB gas storage markets might operate. However, Ofgem recently estimated that around an extra £1 billion could have been added to the cost of GB wholesale gas in winter 2005-06 as a result of gas flows from the Bacton-Zeebrugge Interconnector failing to respond to the relative UK and Continental gas prices. This can be found at:
	http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem/press/fact-sheets.jsp.

Renewable Energy

Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what he has assessed as the highest feasible percentage of energy which can be derived from each renewable source; what steps would be necessary to achieve the figure in each case; by what date he estimates each figure could be achieved; and if he will make a statement.

Malcolm Wicks: The "Renewables Innovation Review", conducted jointly by the DTI and the Carbon Trust and which reported in February 2004 looked at the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the different renewable technologies from the perspective of meeting the 2010 target (10 per cent. of electricity being generated from eligible renewable sources by 2010) and on the longer term renewables aspiration (20 per cent. by 2020) and our 2050 carbon reduction goal. The review also considered mechanisms needed to bring each technology forward. A copy of the review can be found on the DTI website at:
	http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/sources/renewables/policy/govemment-renewable-energy-policy/renewables-innovation-review/pagel5308.html
	In order to help bring on emerging renewable technologies, the Government are currently consulting on a number of proposals to make changes to the Renewables Obligation. These include the idea of "technology banding", which would allow emerging technologies to obtain more funding under the Renewable Obligation than the more established technologies.
	A copy of the consultation document can be found at:
	http://www.dti.gov.uk/consultations/page34162.html

Workplace Bullying

John MacDougall: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what measures his Department is taking to eradicate bullying in the workplace.

Jim Fitzpatrick: holding answer 28 November 2006
	DTI's Partnership at Work Fund has made available £1 million to a project led by Amicus to address the issue of bullying in the workplace. The project partners include BT, Legal and General, BAE Systems and Royal Mail. The project promotes best practice and workplace initiatives to tackle bullying.
	Legislation protects workers from the most serious kinds of bullying, for instance in cases of discrimination or harassment. The Government publishes guidance booklets on how this legislation can be used, and ACAS provides a nationwide telephone advice line offering assistance to employers and employees on bullying and other employment issues.
	These measures support the Government's policy aim that workers should be able to work without fear of being bullied or harassed from employers, fellow employees or anyone else.

Environmentally Sustainable Behaviour

Vincent Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what measures are in place to promote environmentally sustainable behaviour within schools and other educational establishments.

Jim Knight: The Department's Sustainable Development Action Plan sets out how we will incorporate Sustainable Development into our policies. We have also asked our delivery partners in further and higher education to prepare sustainable development action plans to ensure that it's embedded across all sectors of education. The Action Plan is available in the House of Commons Library.
	Our aim is for all schools to become sustainable schools by 2020. We recently consulted on a sustainable schools strategy setting out a national framework of eight 'doorways' for schools to achieve this. The strategy is supported with a dedicated online resource:
	www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools.
	There is an ongoing year of action to support schools to become sustainable. The Department is working with partners to develop a range of resources, for example, the recently published 'top ten tips' that schools can adopt to reduce energy and water running costs. The Department has also offered local authorities an advance of capital investment in 2007-08, worth £375 million, and encouraged them to use this to improve the energy and water efficiency of schools.

Nursery Education

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills on what basis nursery providers can choose to opt out of the provisions in the Childcare Act 2006 that requires providers caring for children up to age five to register on the Early Years register and deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage; and what the consequences are for the providers opting out.

Beverley Hughes: The Childcare Act 2006 puts in place an integrated framework of learning, development and welfare requirements to be met by those providing care to young children. It is intended to increase coherence, provide a flexible approach to care and learning, raise quality across the early years sector and help children to achieve better outcomes.
	Those providing care for children aged zero to five years will be required to join the Early Years Register. In order to ensure a proportionate approach to regulation and inspection exemption from compulsory registration will be allowed under regulation to maintain the existing regime whereby certain forms of care, for example short term, occasional and baby-sitting services are not required to register. Providers exempt from compulsory registration will be able to join the Ofsted Childcare Register voluntarily and enjoy the benefits it brings.
	The Childcare Act also includes a power to exempt early years providers from all or part of the learning and development requirements under the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). We expect that exemptions or modifications in respect of providers to be exceptional and for short limited periods. During the period of such an exemption or modification, local authorities would be expected to use their powers under Section 13 to support the provider to meet the full learning and development requirements. There are no exemptions from EYFS welfare requirements and the learning and develop requirements will be sufficiently flexible to accommodate the vast majority of providers.
	The Department will be consulting on both types of exemption in due course.

NVQs

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the implications for the extended school day of his proposals to require those seeking to work in delivering these provisions to hold national vocational qualifications.

Beverley Hughes: Extended schools provide access to a wide range of services which, depending on the nature of the activity, may require staff to have different skills and qualifications, for example those required for registration of childcare by Ofsted. Beyond this, it is for schools and local authorities to satisfy themselves that those delivering extended services have the levels of skills and qualifications appropriate to the services offered. They are best placed to determine this, taking into account the roles of individual employees and local circumstances.

Members' Portraits

John Pugh: To ask the honourable Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission how much has been spent on paintings and photographs of hon. Members in the current Parliament displayed on the House estate in the last five years.

Nick Harvey: A total of £39,177.50 was spent from the House Vote on paintings and photographs of current Members of Parliament acquired in the last five years. 20 works were acquired for this sum.

Gender Equality

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps he is taking to ensure that  (a) his Department and  (b) the non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies for which he is responsible are taking steps to meet the requirements of the forthcoming duty on public bodies (i) to end unlawful discrimination and harassment and (ii) to promote equality between women and men.

Gareth Thomas: Promoting gender equality is at the heart of DFID's mission to reduce global poverty. DFID is strengthening its work on gender equality globally, through a gender action plan. This fulfils a commitment made in the Government's recent White Paper.
	DFID, in consultation with employees and stakeholders, will also publish a gender equality scheme by 30 April 2007. This will conform to the approach set out in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (Public Authorities)(Statutory Duties) Order 2006 (No. 2930) when it comes into force on 6 April 2007.
	The scope of this legislation applies to those functions which directly affect the UK public. However, in line with our approach to Race and Disability legislation, DFID is fully committed to developing good practice on gender across all our overseas functions.
	The gender equality scheme will (1) ensure there is no unlawful discrimination or harassment and (2) promote equality between men and women.
	The scheme will be reviewed every three years, in consultation with employees and stakeholders. DFID will monitor and report on progress.
	DFID is responsible for one active non-departmental public body, the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. This encourages applications from women, people from minority ethnic backgrounds and disabled people, in line with equality of opportunity.

Global Poverty

Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what resources have been allocated to promote awareness and understanding of global poverty under section 4 of the International Development Act 2002 in each of the last three financial years; and if he will make a statement.

Hilary Benn: The amount spent through DFID's Building Support for Development budget line, to raise awareness and understanding of global poverty issues is:
	
		
			   £ 
			 2004-05 8,840,000 
			 2005-06 9,730,000 
			 2006-07 (1)12 million 
			 (1 )Budget allocation

HIV/AIDS

Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development 
	(1)  what progress his Department has made in increasing the  (a) coverage and  (b) uptake of prevention of mother-to-child transmission services in sub-Saharan Africa; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  what steps his Department is taking to reduce the levels of mother-to-child HIV transmissions within developing countries; and if he will make a statement;
	(3)  what his assessment is of the provision of and access to  (a) Nevirapine and  (b) Cotrimoxazole to (i) expectant mothers, (ii) mothers in labour and (iii) their newborn children in developing countries; and if he will make a statement;
	(4)  what steps he is taking to promote the prevention of parent-to-child transmission of HIV in developing countries; and if he will make a statement.

Gareth Thomas: Prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) is now established as an effective, feasible, affordable and achievable intervention to limit the number of babies born with HIV.
	There has been some progress with coverage. Globally, over 100 countries are now implementing PMTCT programs. Yet only 13 developing countries have achieved national coverage. Coverage of PMTCT programmes is particularly low in sub-Saharan Africa where national rates vary from 1 to 10 per cent. of pregnant women receiving services.
	We know that proven interventions, such as HIV testing followed by treatment with Nevirapine can reduce this risk to only 5 per cent. Only 8 per cent. of women with HIV in poor countries have access to such treatment.
	DFID is concerned at the low distribution of the life-saving, cheap antibiotic, cotrimoxazole; its efficacy in reducing morbidity and mortality of children with HIV was established during DFID funded research. The need to scale up access to cotrimoxazole was highlighted at the UK/UNICEF hosted Global Partners Forum on Children and AIDS. UN agencies, notably WHO and UNICEF have pledged to step up efforts to support countries to scale up provision of cotrimoxazole as part of efforts to scale up health systems more broadly.
	Recent DFID supported research in the Republic of Congo and Uganda demonstrates that pregnant women with HIV are between four to five times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy and childbirth than non-infected women. When a mother dies in childbirth the baby is up to 10 times more likely to die within the first year of life, whether or not they have HIV themselves.
	These are some of the reasons why DFID is increasing its focus on Preventing Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT).
	In Zimbabwe, DFID is initiating a £25 million project designed to address maternal and newborn health in a comprehensive way including: diagnosing HIV in pregnant women; improved obstetric care, increasing access to Nevirapine and other pre and postnatal health services, nutritional monitoring of mother and baby with treatment for mother, father and child if they have HIV.
	In Malawi, where DFID is the major donor in the health sector, with an investment of £100 million over the period 2004-10, a rapid scale up in PMTCT services is taking place with the aim that every pregnant woman visiting a health facility will have access to HIV prevention and treatment services. As countries scale up the provision and availability of anti-retrovirals, they also have to ensure a corresponding increase in uptake of services. In Zambia, we support UNICEF's expansion of prevention of mother to child transmission.
	Stigma and discrimination remain major barriers to uptake of PMTCT and other HIV services in sub-Saharan Africa. DFID is helping to tackle this—for example by funding education and mass-media campaigns in Angola, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe. We have also supported training of journalists across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on sensitive reporting on HIV/AIDS.

HIV/AIDS

Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development 
	(1)  what assessment he has made of progress towards the 2010 targets set out through the UNGASS commitment on HIV and AIDS; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  what progress has been made towards the 2010 target of HIV treatment for all; and if he will make a statement.

Gareth Thomas: The commitment made at the UN General Assembly's High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in June 2006, to pursue all necessary efforts to scale up towards the goal of universal access to comprehensive prevention programmes, treatment, care and support by 2010, was a significant step forward. The General Assembly further committed that countries would set, in 2006, ambitious national targets, including interim targets for 2008, in the context of national plans for scaling up towards comprehensive plans for universal access.
	I understand through UNAIDS that over 80 countries have provided target data and that over 40 have set outcome targets for all prevention, treatment and care. We look forward to these plans being reviewed, seeing the completion of the process to set targets and for countries to set fully costed, credible plans. In this way the international community, with partner governments, can move ahead with implementation of effective national plans for universal access.

HIV/AIDS

Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what progress his Department has made in making access to and uptake of CD4 counts and antiretroviral therapies as wide as possible within rural, developing communities; and if he will make a statement.

Gareth Thomas: The 2006 World Health Organization guidelines on adult antiretroviral treatment in resource-limited settings recommend that national treatment programmes should invest in CD4 cell counting in order to improve the identification of patients in need of treatment.
	However, CD4 cell counting requires expensive laboratory equipment and trained staff, and may not be practical at primary care level, since blood samples must be transported to laboratories. Efforts are continuing to reduce the cost of CD4 cell counting. The Department for International Development will continue to monitor the cost of CD4-cell counting technology and international efforts to reduce costs.
	DFID is supporting the scaling up of AIDS treatment services, including CD4 cell-counting and anti-retrovirals in a growing number of countries worldwide. Examples include:
	Zimbabwe, where an £18 million programme aims to increase by more than 50 per cent., to 20,000, the number of people on anti-retroviral therapy. This is part of a multi-donor partnership, including WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNAIDS and NGOs. DFID is also supporting ART provision in other countries in Africa including DRC, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
	In India, DFID is planning a programme of support to the new National AIDS Control programme. This will involve the setting up of 250 district-level ART clinics, which will provide CD4 testing and scale up treatment access ten-fold, to 400,000 people.
	DFID is supporting the Government of Brazil's STD/AIDS programme to provide technical assistance to 23 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Main elements of this programme include the provision of first line ARV drugs and CD4 cell counting. DFID funded a pilot programme in Uruguay to provide essential laboratory equipment, including CD4 cell counting, backed up with technical training. This enabled key lessons to be learnt.
	DFID is supporting ARV and CD4 scale up both through direct bilateral programmes focussed on AIDS and more broadly on scaling up health systems, as well through our investments in multilateral instruments, notably the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM), to which we gave £100 million this year. The GFATM has provided anti-retroviral therapy to over 600,000 people in developing countries.

Sudan

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assistance his Department has provided to the Beja people of Eastern Sudan to combat  (a) food insecurity,  (b) child mortality and  (c) gender inequality.

Hilary Benn: DFID does not collate information on an ethnic basis from Eastern Sudan: our programmes aim to help poor people living there, regardless of ethnic origin.
	Much of our work in the region is focused on providing greater food security, and preventing child malnutrition. We are helping in a number of ways. DFID is supporting two agencies, Oxfam, and Action Contre la Faim (ACF), who are working to address the underlying causes of food insecurity, for example by developing water resources, by re-stocking livestock, and by relieving many of the poorest agro-pastoralists in Red Sea state from chronic indebtedness. Through the UN we are also funding a number of agencies supporting food security and livelihoods initiatives.
	We are supporting ACF's child feeding programme in Red Sea state, which is providing life saving supplemental and therapeutic feeding to under-fives. The programme is also attempting to better understand and address the causes of child malnutrition, particularly access to clean water and sanitation. Our contributions to the UN are also supporting nutrition programming in the East.
	DFID is helping to finance GOAL's primary health care programme in Kassala state. This provides basic and life saving health services to adults and children.
	While DFID does not have a specific gender programme in Eastern Sudan, we work hard to ensure that our partners integrate the needs of women into all the programmes we support.

Sudan

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what plans he has for mine clearance in the East of Sudan.

Hilary Benn: Sudan's borders with Ethiopia and Eritrea are thought to be heavily mined, and the signing of the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement brings hope that these areas will be opened for mine marking, clearance, and education by the UN and other agencies. Together with the lack of basic services, the presence of mines in the East is considered to be a major deterrent to return for both the internally displaced and refugees.
	This year, with others, DFID has provided around $175,000 in support of mine action in Eastern Sudan, through a pooled humanitarian funding mechanism administered by the UN. Next year's allocations have yet to be determined.

Pensions

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many Gurkhas retired after 15 years service in the last five years; what the average pension paid to Gurkhas was in each year; and if he will make a statement.

Derek Twigg: The following table shows the number of Gurkha soldiers who left the Army upon completion of their service in each of the last five years.
	
		
			  Financial year  Number of soldiers( 1) 
			 2001-02 210 
			 2002-03 250 
			 2003-04 260 
			 2004-05 240 
			 2005-06 250 
			 Total 1,200 
			 (1) Rounded to nearest 10. 
		
	
	The length of service for each soldier is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Under their terms of engagement, soldiers of the rank of corporal and below may serve in the Brigade of Gurkhas for up to a maximum of 15 years, which earns them an immediate pension under the Gurkha Pension Scheme. 99 per cent. of Gurkhas serve through to the 15-year point.
	The information needed to calculate the average pension paid to Gurkhas in each of the last five years is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Recruitment

Mark Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the  (a) recruitment target and  (b) recruitment level achieved was for each pinch point trade for the (i) Army, (ii) Navy and (iii) RAF in the last 12 months.

Derek Twigg: Details of financial year 2005-06 targets and achievements in each of the service's recruiting pinch point trades were as follows:
	
		
			  Naval service 
			Achievement 
			  Branch  Target  Number  Percentage 
			 Aircrew—Pilot 45 44 98 
			 Aircrew Observer 41 37 90 
			 Engineering Officer—Air 15 12 80 
			 Engineering Officer—Weapons 16 12 75 
			 Engineering Officer—Mechanical 25 21 84 
			 Royal Marine General Duties Other Rank 1,219 1,155 95 
			 Submarine Ratings—Operator Maintainer 123 126 102 
			 Submarine Ratings—Steward 18 7 39 
			 Submarine Ratings—Writer 7 3 43 
		
	
	
		
			  Army 
			Achievement 
			  Trade  Target  Number  Percentage 
			 RE Fitter General 117 101 86 
			 RE C3 Systems 168 216 128 
			 RE Geographical 62 80 129 
			 R Signals Information Systems Engineer 54 41 80 
			 RLC Petroleum Operator 82 90 110 
			 RLC Chefs 428 298 70 
			 RLC Ammo Technician 125 134 107 
			 RLC Movement Controller 54 27 50 
			 REME Vehicle Mechanic 552 681 123 
			 REME Armourer 78 96 123 
			 REME Recovery Mechanic 109 103 94 
			 Int Corps Operator Military Intelligence 164 154 94 
		
	
	
		
			  RAF 
			Achievement 
			  Branch  Target  Number  Percentage 
			 Medical Officer 35 30 86 
			 Legal Officer 5 3 60 
			 Princess Mary's RAF Nursing Services 14 17 121 
			 Weapon System Operator Linguist 10 10 100 
			 Musician 10 10 100 
			 Regiment Gunner 176 187 106

INVEST Northern Ireland

Alasdair McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what total amount of Invest Northern Ireland financial assistance was given to Trivirix before its closure in 2005; and whether INVEST Northern Ireland has conducted an inquiry into the closure.

Maria Eagle: Prior to the administration date of 20 February 2006 Trivirix was offered £4,258,000 of Invest Northern Ireland assistance of which £2,597,000 was paid.
	Invest Northern Ireland did not judge it necessary to carry out an inquiry following the closure as Invest NI had maintained regular contact with Trivirix throughout the period preceding the administration.

Parking Fines

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much and what percentage of total unpaid parking fines in Northern Ireland attributable to foreign registered vehicles relate to vehicles registered in the Republic of Ireland.

Paul Goggins: The PSNI have advised that they do not keep records on foreign registered vehicles and are therefore unable to provide the percentage of the total unpaid parking fines attributable to foreign registered vehicles, including vehicles registered in the Republic of Ireland.

Police Training College

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will give consideration to Ballykelly Army Base's topography and proximity to Eglinton Airport in determining a suitable location for the proposed Police Training College in Northern Ireland.

Paul Goggins: The Government's over-riding priority is to make sure that we have a new, high quality police college. Ministers have been exploring all avenues, including the Ballykelly army base, to ensure that the project provides value for money. The Cookstown site, which was identified following an extensive exercise, remains the preferred site for the new college.

Rates Revaluation

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many and what proportion of households will experience seeing  (a) an increase by one per cent. or more,  (b) a decrease by one per cent. or more and  (c) no change, before the application of transitional relief, as a result of the rates revaluation in (i) Northern Ireland as a whole and (ii) each district area.

David Hanson: The following table sets out the number and proportion experiencing an increase of 1 per cent or more, a decrease of 1 per cent or more and no change, for each council area and for Northern Ireland as a whole.
	
		
			  Council area  Increase by 1 per cent. or more (Number)  Increase by  1 per cent. or more (%.)  Decrease by  1 per cent. or more (Number)  Decrease by  1 per cent. or more (%)  No change (Number)  No change (%) 
			 Antrim 6,768 35.95 12,050 64 8 0.05 
			 Ards 16,215 51 15,514 48.9 21 0.06 
			 Armagh 8,634 39.5 13,035 59.6 193 0.1 
			 Ballymena 8,630 35.2 15,865 64.7 9 0.03 
			 Ballymoney 3,509 31.8 7,509 68 16 0.14 
			 Banbridge 5,377 30.6 12,204 69.4 2 0.01 
			 Belfast 68,353 55 55,834 44.9 96 0.1 
			 Carrickfergus 3,404 20.6 13,116 79.4 7 0.04 
			 Castlereagh 18,635 65 9,980 34.8 25 0.09 
			 Coleraine 10,328 38.8 16,256 61.1 16 0.06 
			 Cookstown 7,474 59.7 5,042 40.3 6 0.05 
			 Craigavon 7,891 22.8 26,720 77.1 25 0.07 
			 Derry 13,602 33.3 27,223 66.7 8 0.02 
			 Down 13,031 49.7 13,157 50.2 6 0.02 
			 Dungannon 11,070 56.6 8,495 43.4 2 0.01 
			 Fermanagh 12,055 49.6 12,230 50.3 14 0.06 
			 Larne 5,093 36.5 8,849 63.4 17 0.12 
			 Limavady 3,316 28.7 8,241 71.3 1 0.01 
			 Lisburn 17,879 41.5 25,176 58.5 9 0.02 
			 Magherafelt 6,319 44.3 7,934 55.6 4 0.03 
			 Moyle 3,582 46.4 4,118 53.4 18 0.2 
			 Newry and Mourne 18,665 54.7 15,446 45.2 25 0.07 
			 Newtownabbey 10,163 29.8 23,916 70.1 7 0.02 
			 North Down 15,071 45.2 18,258 54.7 15 0.04 
			 Omagh 6,781 36.7 11,650 63.2 17 0.09 
			 Strabane 4,432 30.2 10,248 69.8 10 0.07 
			 Northern Ireland 306,277 43.45 398,066 56.47 577 0.08 
			  Note: Some of the percentages may no total 100 per cent. due to rounding

River Bann

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans there are to promote the water-based tourist potential of the River Bann at Coleraine.

Maria Eagle: Waterways Ireland through the implementation of its Marketing and Promotion Strategy actively promotes the Lower Bann navigation and the facilities at or adjacent to it. The strategy now in its third year of implementation combines both destination and product marketing aspects and is delivered through an integrated set of tactics in order that the marketing needs of the different target groups can be satisfied.
	Waterways Ireland also runs a Sponsorship Programme whereby it sponsors local water based events of which three were held on the Lower Bann in 2006.
	The Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) has identified Activity Tourism which includes angling and water sports as one of five winning themes in its Strategic Framework for Action. A new activity brochure will be produced in early spring representing a range of outdoor activities throughout Northern Ireland, plus a new website:
	www.outdooractivitiesni.com
	Currently the Lower Bann features on www.discovernnorthernireland.com NITB's consumer website with links to other websites, in particular the Bann System website www.bannsystem.com which provides detailed information on fishing on the river.

Scottish Undergraduates

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what estimate he has made of how many school leavers in Scotland have opted to attend university education in Northern Ireland.

Maria Eagle: The Department for Employment and Learning does not hold information on Scottish school leavers. Provisional figures published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) show that 13 applicants, whose area of permanent residence was recorded as Scotland, have been accepted to Northern Ireland Higher Education Institutions in 2006.

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what use the Valuation and Lands Agency makes of the techniques of  (a) variography and  (b) similarity matrices for valuation purposes.

David Hanson: The techniques of variography and similarity formulae are incorporated in the Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) software (Spatialest®) used by the Valuation and Lands Agency to produce first pass valuations in connection with the recently published Capital Value Domestic Revaluation. In combination these techniques determine the selection of sales comparables by determining their proximity and degree of similarity to each property valued in the CAMA process.
	They are integrated within the proprietary software and programmed to operate independently of valuer input. The resulting value estimates are however reviewed by Agency valuers.

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what foreign visits have been undertaken by Valuation and Lands Agency staff on official business in the last 12 months.

David Hanson: Nigel Woods, chief executive and Alan Bronte, director of Domestic Rating and Assessment attended the annual conference of the International Association of Assessing Officers in Milwaukee, USA, departing Northern Ireland on 7 October 2006 and returning on 13 October 2006.

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what databases owned by the Valuation and Lands Agency are managed  (a) internally and  (b) by external consultants.

David Hanson: The agency's core IT system, Assessment Office (AO), was developed and is supported and managed by external consultancy firm LogicaCMG. LogicaCMG also support the agency's statutory Valuation Lists published on the internet.
	Remaining database systems are supported and managed by other external suppliers and agency staff. The details are set out in the table.
	
		
			  Database system  Purpose  Management 
			 Assessment Office Property Valuation and Casework management LogicaCMG 
			 Internet Valuation Lists Statutory Publication of 4th and 5th Valuation Lists LogicaCMG 
			 Capital Value Schedule Publication of Provisional Capital Values LogicaCMG 
			 Sun Financials Agency Finance System Sysco 
			 Rascal Analysis of Property Rents Helm Corporation 
			 CAMA System Estimation of Capital Valuations Internal 
			 Spatial Database Support of valuation models via digital mapping Internal 
			 Avgen Valuation on Asset basis Internal 
			 SDLT and SID Systems Market Transaction Repositories Internal 
			 MOD System Specialist Property Valuation Internal 
			 Income Based Systems Hotel and other income-based valuations Internal 
			 Photoviewer Database Image Repository Internal

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the co-efficient value of values given to each of the property attributes for  (a) window glazing,  (b) gardens,  (c) garage spaces and  (d) off-street parking spaces are in the Valuation and Land Agency's calibrated Multiple Regression formula used in the domestic rates revaluation in Northern Ireland.

David Hanson: In Northern Ireland window glazing, gardens, garage spaces and off-street parking were not value significant in any of the models used by the Valuation and lands Agency and hence no co-efficient values were given to them.

Departmental Expenditure

Mark Francois: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  how much was spent on overseas travel for staff of  (a) his Department and  (b) its agencies other than when accompanying Ministers in each year since 2001-02;
	(2)  how much was spent on travel costs within the UK by staff of  (a) his Department and  (b) its agencies in each year since 2001-02.

John Healey: For total travel costs for the years 2001-02 to 2003-04 inclusive, I refer to the answer given by the then Financial Secretary (Ruth Kelly) to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) on 19 July 2004,  Official Report, column 44W). Further analysis in relation to those years could now be provided only at disproportionate cost. Figures for 2004-05 and 2005-06 are set out in the following table.
	For the former HM Customs and Excise, the Royal Mint and the Office for National Statistics, travel cannot be disaggregated from travel and subsistence.
	
		
			  £000 
			  Department/agency  Basis of figures  2004-05  2005-06 
			 HM Treasury UK travel 347 511 
			  Overseas travel 1,416 1,418 
			 Debt Management Office UK travel 12 19 
			  Overseas travel 10 18 
			 Office of Government Commerce UK travel 1,227 1,474 
			  Overseas travel 26 23 
			 OGCbuying.solutions Total travel 837 992 
			 Valuation Office Agency UK travel 3,073 3,475 
			  Overseas travel 4 4 
			 Government Actuary's Department UK travel 31 50 
			  Overseas travel 79 65

Departmental Expenditure

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much his Department paid in pension contributions for  (a) his special advisers and  (b) the Council of Economic Advisers in each of the last three years.

John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answers given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 24 July 2006,  Official Report, column 86WS, 21 July 2005,  Official Report, column 161WS and 22 July 2004,  Official Report, columns 466W.

Departmental Staff

Vincent Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his Department's annual budget is for employing workers on a consultancy basis; and how much of this budget was used in each of the last five years for which records are available.

John Healey: The Treasury's overall budgets for the remaining years of the current spending review period and outturn for past years are shown in the departmental report, available from
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/about/departmental_reports/deptreport_index.cfm.
	The Treasury does not have a fixed, recurrent, annual budget for consultants. Budgets for line items such as consultants are allocated internally on an annual basis, as part of the business planning process, and flexed in year to accommodate changes to priorities and circumstances. The budgets for similar line items, such as consultancy and contracted out services, may be aggregated within the accounting system.
	For the Treasury's actual spend on consultants for the years up to 2004-05, I refer to the answer given to the hon. member for Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Central (Jim Cousins) on 14 March 2006,  Official Report, column 2128W. The Treasury's actual spend on consultants in 2005-06 was £6.10 million. Treasury' spending on consultants includes, since 2002-03, fees to Partnerships UK for their work providing project and policy support to the Treasury and other public bodies on the development, procurement and implementation of public private partnerships.

Foreign Aid

Paul Burstow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has had with his counterparts on the International Monetary Fund's Monetary and Finance Committee on ways in which developing country Governments can more effectively utilise flows of foreign aid to accelerate their response to AIDS without compromising economic growth; and if he will make a statement.

Edward Balls: The IMF advises developing country Governments about how to ensure public spending financed from foreign aid and other sources is consistent with macroeconomic stability, itself a prerequisite for economic growth. In his Medium Term Strategy the IMF Managing Director, Rodrigo Rato, identified marshalling of the expected rise in aid flows to achieve the MDGs as one of the Fund's key challenges in developing countries. The UK and the IMF jointly hosted a workshop at the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in April this year on the management of increased aid flows, including for tackling HIV/AIDS, and the issue was subsequently raised at the IMFC. The conclusion of this and other engagement on the issue has been that countries can, with appropriate economic policies, manage the impact of large aid flows.

HM Revenue and Customs

Nick Gibb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether  (a) HM Revenue and Customs,  (b) the UK Debt Management Office and  (c) the Crown Estate recognise the International GCSE as an acceptable substitute for a GCSE for the purposes of recruitment.

John Healey: For HMRC and the UK Debt Management Office it is an acceptable substitute. The Crown Estate however does not use GCSEs generally as a standard for their recruitment purposes, so the question doesn't apply.

Household Statistics

David Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  how many couples were recorded as living apart together in each quarter from the first quarter of 1990 to the third quarter of 2006; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  how many couples were  (a) married,  (b) unmarried but living together and  (c) living apart in each year since 1990; and if he will make a statement.

John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
	 Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated 29 November 2006:
	The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions asking for the number couples recorded as living apart together in each quarter from the first quarter of 1990 to the third quarter of 2006 (102936) and the number of couples who were (a) married, (b) unmarried but living together and (c) living apart in each year since 1990. I am replying in her absence. (102936,102937)
	Information on couples living apart together is not compiled on a routine basis. A first attempt to estimate the numbers living apart together were published in an article in Population Trends 122 (Winter 2005) entitled 'Living Arrangements in contemporary Britain: having a partner who usually lives elsewhere and living apart together'. This is available in the House of Commons library.
	Annual estimates of married and cohabiting couples are available from the Labour Force Survey, which has the largest sample size and provides longest continuous time series. The numbers requested are available from this survey since 1996, when population weights first enabled estimates for the population as a whole to be produced. Prior to this, 1991 Census counts are also available. The available information is provided in the table below.
	
		
			  Numbers of married and cohabiting couples, United Kingdom and England and Wales, 1991 to 2005 
			  Thousands 
			   United Kingdom  England and Wales 
			   (a) married couples  (b) cohabiting couples  (a) married couples  (b) cohabiting couples 
			 1991 12,527 (1)n/a 11,115 1,097 
			 1996 12,633 1,472 11,168 1,362 
			 1997 12,549 1,673 11,106 1,540 
			 1998 12,473 1,750 11,061 1,606 
			 1999 12,421 1,848 11,020 1,694 
			 2000 12,385 1,965 10,980 1,793 
			 2001 12,265 2,086 10,867 1,901 
			 2002 12,225 2,119 10,828 1,927 
			 2003 12,163 2,198 10,792 1,996 
			 2004 12,154 2,229 10,768 2,021 
			 2005 12,122 2,312 10,739 2,091 
			 (1 )Cohabitation data is not available from the 1991 NI Census outputs therefore a UK figure cannot be produced for 1991.  Source: Labour Force Survey, average of spring and autumn quarters, except 1991 where the figures are based on the 1991 Census

Landfill Tax

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the proportion of landfill tax revenue that comes from  (a) local authorities and  (b) their agents.

John Healey: Reliable estimates are not available for the proportion of landfill tax revenue from local authorities and their agents. Registered landfill site operators pay the tax to HMRC and information on the source of the waste and the customer is not recorded on the landfill tax return.

Muslim Council of Britain

Michael Gove: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list meetings between  (a) ministers and  (b) officials in his Department and representatives of the Muslim Council of Britain since 1997; and if he will make a statement.

John Healey: Treasury ministers and officials meet a wide range of individuals and organisations in the public and private sectors to discuss a variety of issues as part of the process of policy analysis and development. As was the case with previous administrations, it is not the Government's normal practice to provide details of all such meetings.

National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre

Patrick Mercer: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much was spent by the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre in the 2005-06 financial year, broken down by main budget heading.

Tony McNulty: I have been asked to reply.
	Overall, NISCC spent £10 million during the financial year 2005-06. Its four main business streams are: threat assessment; outreach, response; and capability development. It is difficult to provide a meaningful further breakdown of costs as all of these work streams are highly interdependent, with activity in one area contributing to outputs in another.

Parliamentary Questions

Mark Francois: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his Department uses an internal traffic light or colour coded system in relation to written parliamentary questions; and whether his Department operates any system of classification of written parliamentary questions according to  (a) political sensitivity,  (b) media interest and  (c) other factors.

David Laws: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his Department has a traffic light system in place for processing parliamentary questions, where questions are categorised using a colour code.

John Healey: The Treasury has neither a traffic light nor a colour coded system for classifying parliamentary questions and it has never categorised questions according to their political sensitivity, media interest or other factors.

Stolen Departmental Property

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what items worth more than £100 have been stolen from his Department in each of the last nine years.

John Healey: Three laptop computers and associated IT equipment were stolen in 2005. Two items of IT equipment have been stolen in 2006.
	For earlier years, I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer the former Financial Secretary (Mr. Timms) gave to the hon. Member for Tatton, 27 January 2005,  Official Report, column 443W.

Terrorism

Patrick Mercer: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how the seized assets of individuals and organisations suspected of having links with al-Qaeda and the Taliban have been disposed of.

Edward Balls: The al-Qaeda and Taliban (United Nations Measures) Order 2006 freezes the assets of persons listed by the UN Sanctions Committee under UN Security Council resolution 1390 as members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, or associated with them, or persons subject to a direction by the Treasury. However the assets remain the property of those persons and therefore the assets cannot be disposed of.

The Olympics

Vincent Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what role his Department played in agreeing the financial component of the Olympic bid document; which  (a) Ministers and  (b) officials were involved in the discussions, and when; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen Timms: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid-Kent on 28 November 2006, question 104521.

The Olympics

Vincent Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what consideration was given to the VAT implications when planning the structure of the Olympic Development Authority; and if he will make a statement.

Dawn Primarolo: The Olympic Delivery Authority was established as a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006. The VAT treatment of public bodies is set out in the VAT Act 1994.

Valuation Office Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much the Valuation Office Agency has spent on its computer assisted mass appraisal system.

Dawn Primarolo: The Valuation Office Agency (VGA) does not have a full computer assisted mass appraisal (CAMA) system, but has developed an automated valuation model (AVM). I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 14 July 2006,  Official Report, column 2119W.

VAT Fraud

Vincent Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimates his Department has made of the level of missing trader intra-community VAT fraud originating via the Dubai Connection for each year since 1999-2000; and if he will make a statement.

Dawn Primarolo: HMRC does not break down estimates of MTIC fraud on a country specific basis.

Working Pensioners

Nigel Waterson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many pensioners over the age of  (a) 65 years,  (b) 70 years and  (c) 75 years are in paid employment.

John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
	 Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 29 November 2006
	As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many pensioners over the age of (a) 65 years, (b) 70 years and (c) 75 years are in paid employment. (103401)
	The attached table gives estimates for those in older age groups by gender who are in employment, for the three months ending September 2006.
	Estimates are taken from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
	
		
			  People aged 60 years and over in employment by age and gender, United Kingdom, not seasonally adjusted—three months ending September 2006 
			  Thousand 
			  Age  All persons  Male  Female 
			 60 and over(1, 2) 2,057 1,274 783 
			 65 and over 635 393 241 
			 70 and over 207 130 77 
			 75 and over 70 45 25 
			 (1) Includes men under pensionable age. (2) The 60 and over age group have been included as the state pension age for women is 60.  Source: ONS Labour Force Survey (LFS)

Cross-border NHS Patient Flows

Mark Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales when he last met the Welsh Assembly Minister for Health to discuss cross-border NHS patient flows.

Nick Ainger: I regularly meet the Assembly Minister for Health and Social Care when we discuss a range of issues including cross-border NHS patient flows.

South Wales Economy

John Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what discussions he has had with Assembly members and UK Ministers on the performance of the South Wales economy.

Nick Ainger: I have regular discussions with Welsh Assembly Government colleagues and UK Ministers on a range of issues including the performance of the South Wales economy.
	There is good news in South Wales. Claimant count in the Vale of Glamorgan is down 47 per cent. since 1997, and has fallen by the same percentage across South Wales as a whole. Furthermore, employment is at a record high, with 1.345 million people in work as a result of Government and Assembly Government policies.

Democratic Republic of Congo

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment she has made of the arrests of Madame Marie-Thérèse Nlandu and other opposition politicians in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and if she will make a statement.

Ian McCartney: We are concerned by the continued detention of Marie- Thérèse Nlandu, since her arrest on charges of illegal possession of weapons on 21 November. Our ambassador in Kinshasa has spoken to the Interior Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo and senior advisers to President Kabila, and outlined our concerns over allegations that Mme Nlandu's human rights, particularly her access to legal representation, have not been fully respected. Other EU missions have done likewise. We continue to press the Congolese government to ensure that due legal process is adhered to in this case and continue to remind the government-elect of the need to ensure space for political opposition.

Serbia

William Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions she has had with her European counterparts on the Italian proposal for talks with Serbia on a EU Stabilisation and Association Agreement to be restarted.

Margaret Beckett: Foreign Ministers discussed Serbia at the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) meetings on 16-17 October and 13-14 November in Brussels. My right hon. Friend the Minister of Europe, (Mr. Hoon), and I have also discussed Serbia in bilateral meetings with European counterparts.
	The EU's position, shared by the UK, remains as set out by the October GAERC, at which the Council expressed its
	"readiness to continue enhanced political dialogue with Serbia in order to support its European course, including the resumption of the negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement as soon as full co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is achieved".

Sudan

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if she will investigate the end-use of portable helipads supplied by Vaughans of Leicester to the government of Sudan.

Kim Howells: The UK adheres rigorously to the UN and EU Arms Embargoes on the Sudan. We are aware of reports of UK supplied helipads being used in the country and are looking into the details of this export. It would be inappropriate to comment further until we have the full details.
	Officials will write to my hon. Friend when we are in receipt of the information.

Television Licences

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many households in each constituency in Northern Ireland are in receipt of the free television licence for over 75s.

Shaun Woodward: TV Licensing, who administer free television licences for people aged 75 or over as agents for the BBC, are not able to provide geographical breakdowns of the number of free licences issued. However, the estimated number of households in each constituency in Northern Ireland with at least one person aged 75 or over claiming the winter fuel payment in 2005-06, based on records held by the Northern Ireland Department for Social Development, was:
	
		
			  Parliamentary constituency  Estimated number of households with at least one person aged 75 or over claiming the winter fuel payment, 2005-06( 1) 
			 Belfast East 6,049 
			 Belfast North 5,359 
			 Belfast South 5,180 
			 Belfast West 3,654 
			 East Antrim 4,295 
			 East Londonderry 4,261 
			 Fermanagh and South Tyrone 4,611 
			 Foyle 3,681 
			 Lagan Valley 5,044 
			 Mid Ulster 3,939 
			 Newry and Armagh 4,685 
			 North Antrim 5,683 
			 North Down 5,644 
			 South Antrim 4,276 
			 South Down 5,167 
			 Strangford 5,007 
			 Upper Bann 4,728 
			 West Tyrone 3,875 
			 Missing Postcode(1) 275 
			 Total 85,413 
			 (1 )In producing this analysis, individual records were attributed to parliamentary constituencies (PC's) on the basis of their postcode. Not all records can be correctly allocated to a PC using this method.

Automated Teller Machines

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether stand-alone automated teller machines are liable for business rates.

Phil Woolas: Stand-alone automated teller machines form a rateable hereditament in that the site including any 'hole-in-the-wall' through which it projects, is rateable, together with any associated structure. This structure may compose of the shelter, settings and or foundations of the automated teller machine. The automated teller machine itself, however, is not rateable as it is not a named item in the Valuation for Rating ( Plant and Machinery ) Regulations 2000 (S.I 2000/540).

Data Sharing

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will place in the Library a copy of the presentations and handouts provided at the meeting on data-sharing held at her Department on 31 October.

Phil Woolas: Officials meetings are regularly held on policy issues including data sharing. It is not our practice to circulate internal papers which relate to preparing advice to ministers on policy matters.

Departmental Staff

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many and what percentage of staff employed in her Department were registered disabled in each year since 2001.

Angela Smith: The Department for Communities and Local Government came into being on 5 May 2006.
	Communities and Local Government's predecessor, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, was formed on 29 May 2002 and the requested information may be found in Civil Service Statistics published by the Cabinet Office. Reports for 2003, 2004 and 2005 are available in the House of Commons Library and on the Cabinet Office website at:
	http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/management/statistics/publications
	At March 2006 there were 81 staff, 3.5 per cent., who declared themselves as disabled.

Fire Service

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what research her Department has carried out into the resource implications of climate change for fire and rescue services.

Angela Smith: The Department has carried out a study of the potential effect of climate change in the UK on the fire and rescue services based on scenarios from the most recent UK Climate Impacts programme (UKCEP) technical report.
	The report on this work suggests that the impact of climate change on the workload of the fire and rescue services will be gradual, rather than requiring any immediate change to their resources. This is because the UKCDP scenarios forecast, over the next few decades, a gradual increase in the frequency of extreme weather conditions.
	The report is currently going through the Department's approval procedure and will be issued on the Department's website before the end of the year.

Government Office for London

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the total expenditure of the Government Office for London was in each year since 1996-97; and what the forecast figures are for  (a) 2006-07 and  (b) 2007-08.

Angela Smith: Government Office for London's running cost expenditure is as follows:
	
		
			  £ million 
			   Status  Total 
			 1998-99 Outturn 16.0 
			 1999-2000 Outturn 16.0 
			 2000-01 Outturn 14.7 
			 2001-02 Outturn 13.2 
			 2002-03 Outturn 14.1 
			 2003-04 Outturn 16.7 
			 2004-05 Outturn 18.9 
			 2005-06 Outturn 18.5 
			 2006-07 Forecast 18.2 
			 2007-08 Forecast 17.3 
		
	
	Figures for 1996-97 and 1997-98 are not held.
	Government Office for London's programme expenditure is as follows:
	
		
			  £ million 
			   Total 
			 1998-99 1,440 
			 1999-2000 2,202 
			 2000-01 1,605 
			 2001-02 2,094 
			 2002-03 2,530 
			 2003-04 2,724 
			 2004-05 3,323 
			 2005-06 2,970 
			 2006-07 3,074 
		
	
	GOL's programme budget for this year, 2006-07, breaks down as follows:
	£308 million funding that GOL directly allocates and makes payments—largely consisting of New Deal for Communities and European funding;
	£339 million where GOL manages the programme delivery in London but does not make payments, for example Neighbourhood Renewal Funding on behalf of Communities and Local Government;
	£2.427 billion in grants to the Greater London Authority and Transport for London that are paid via GOL to the GLA.
	We do not hold figures for 1996-97 and 1997-98. The figure for 2006-07 is the programme budget, not outturn. Allocations for 2007-08 have not yet been made.

Hotels

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent representations her Department has received advocating a new local tax on hotel accommodation.

Phil Woolas: Local taxation issues are being considered as part of Sir Michael Lyons' inquiry into local government funding.

Valuation Office Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many dwellings in England have value significant code data for each of the value significant codes.

Phil Woolas: This information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Valuation Office Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether double glazing is a  (a) value significant and  (b) dwelling house code property attribute in the Value Office Agency's Automated Valuation Model.

Phil Woolas: Double glazing is neither a  (a) value significant code nor  (b) a property attribute code in the Valuation Office Agency's database.

Benefit Claims

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average processing time for an  (a) housing and  (b) council tax benefit claim was in each of the last five years.

James Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws), on 8 November 2006,  Official Report, column 1614-1615.

Benefits (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)

Michael Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many individuals in Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk constituency were in receipt of  (a) state pension and  (b) pension credit at (i) 30 December 2005, (ii) 30 March 2006, (iii) 30 June 2006 and (iv) 30 September 2006; and what the average pension credit payment was at each of these dates.

James Purnell: The information is not available in the form requested. Such information as is available is in the following tables.
	
		
			  Pension credit beneficiaries and claimants and the average weekly payment for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk parliamentary constituency: August 2005 to May 2006. 
			  Quarter  Beneficiaries  Claimants  Average Weekly Payment 
			 May 2006 6,500 5,300 38.33 
			 February 2006 6,490 5,280 35.42 
			 November 2005 6,490 5,300 35.75 
			 August 2005 6,480 5,290 35.60 
		
	
	
		
			  State pension recipients for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk parliamentary constituency: August 2005 to May 2006. 
			  Quarter  Total 
			 May 2006 20,650 
			 February 2006 20,540 
			 November 2005 20,520 
			 August 2005 20,490 
			  Notes. Caseload figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. Average amounts are shown as pounds per week and rounded to the nearest penny. Pension credit claimants—includes people who are one of a couple and have claimed on behalf of both members of the couple. Parliamentary constituencies are those for the Westminster Parliament.  Source :  DWP Information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study.

Benefits (Bexleyheath and Crayford)

David Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Bexleyheath and Crayford received  (a) income support,  (b) pension credit and  (c) disability living allowance in 2005-06.

James Plaskitt: The available information is in the table.
	
		
			  Income support, pension credit and disability living allowance recipients in Bexleyheath and Crayford parliamentary constituency at the quarters shown 
			   Income Support  Pension Credit  Disability Living Allowance 
			 May 2005 2,270 2,780 2,940 
			 August 2005 2,290 2,800 2,960 
			 November 2005 2,310 2,810 3,200 
			 February 2006 2,320 2,790 3,040 
			  Notes: 1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Income support figures exclude residual minimum income guarantee claimants. 3. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant postcode directory. 4. Pension credit recipients are those people who claim pension credit either on behalf of themselves only or on behalf of a household. This number is equal to the number of households in receipt of pension credit. 5. Disability Living Allowance figures show the number of people in receipt of an allowance, and exclude people with entitlement where the payment has been suspended, for example if they are in hospital.  Source: 100 per cent Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study

Child Support Agency

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on progress with reforms to the Child Support Agency.

James Plaskitt: holding answer 27 November 2006
	We are currently developing plans for introducing a new system of child support. As part of this we are considering the most cost effective way of moving to, and administering, the new system.
	We are carrying out an intensive programme of work to determine the way forward and plan to publish detailed proposals in a White Paper.

Company Pensions

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what protection is provided to members of a company pension scheme in respect of terms, conditions and benefits of the scheme when the company is sold to a company which is not incorporated in the EU.

James Purnell: Members of a UK occupational pension scheme are covered by the statutory provisions irrespective of where the sponsoring company or its parent company is incorporated. Therefore, these schemes will be regulated by the Pensions Regulator and if they are defined benefit schemes members' pensions will be covered by the Pensions Protection Fund.
	If a new employer (irrespective of where it is incorporated) purchases a UK incorporated company which operates an occupational pension scheme, that new employer must, as part of the TUPE(1) arrangements, ensure it offers its new (UK) employees access to either an occupational pension scheme or stakeholder pension.
	(1) The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment Regulations 2006 (SI2006/246)

Housing

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what representations on simplifying the non-dependant deduction received in response to 'Quality and choice: a decent home for all' his Department has considered.

James Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Danny Alexander) on 1 February 2006,  Official Report, column 590W.

Housing

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which organisations  (a) were in favour of and  (b) opposed the simplification or reform of the housing benefit non-dependent deduction regime proposed in the housing green paper referred to in the answer of 1 February 2006 on benefits.

James Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave to the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Danny Alexander) on 27 February 2006,  Official Report, column 246W.

Means-testing

Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of pensioners being means-tested to receive  (a) pensions and  (b) other benefits.

James Purnell: The answer is in the following table. For comparison, at the same date 10.4 million people were in receipt of the state pension.
	
		
			  Number of pensioner households in Great Britain in receipt of income related benefits: May 2004 
			   Pensioner households 
			  (a) Pensions(1) 2,490,000 
			  (b) Other benefits(2) 630,000 
			 (1) Pensions includes pension credit only. (2) Other benefits includes MIG/IS, JSA(IB), HB and CTB where the pensioner is not also in receipt of pension credit.  Notes: 1. Income-related benefits are pension credit, minimum income guarantee/income support for those aged 60 and above (MIG/IS), income-based jobseeker's allowance (JSA(IB)), housing benefit (HB) and council tax benefit (CTB). 2. The figures relate to households where the claimant and/or the claimant's partner is aged 60 or over, and are for May 2004, which is the latest date for which it is possible remove overlaps between housing benefit and council tax benefit and the other income related benefits. 3. Pensioner households contain a claimant and/or claimant's partner who is aged 60 or over. 4. Figures based on 1 per cent. and 5 per cent. samples are subject to sampling variation. JSA(IB), information concerning partners of pension credit and MIG/IS claimants are derived from 5 per cent. sample data and HB/CTB figures are derived from 1 per cent. samples. 5. Due to the estimation procedure to produce the figures for housing benefit and/or council tax benefit, figures have been rounded to the nearest 10,000. 6. Totals may not sum due to rounding. 7. CTB data exclude second adult rebate cases. 8. HB data exclude any extended payment cases. 9. Some income-based JSA claimants may also have entitlement to benefit via the contributory route.  Source: DWP 1 per cent. samples (housing benefit/council tax benefit), 5 per cent. samples Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study.

Court House (Salisbury)

Robert Key: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs when work will start on the construction of the new Court House in Salisbury; when the new courts will be in service; and what the estimated cost is of the project.

Harriet Harman: Construction on the new Courthouse in Salisbury is expected to start in May 2007, with the new facility being open for service in January 2009. It will be built as a Private Developer Scheme (PDS) which means that HMCS will be spending less than £1 million in fees, and will not take a capital risk. Instead we will take a guaranteed lease from the successful bidder who will take that risk. We expect that the capital cost of the project to the developer will be approximately £14.5 million.

Crown Court

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many criminal cases were brought in the Crown courts in each of the last five years.

Harriet Harman: Figures relating to the number of cases received by the Crown court centres in the past five years are set out in the following table.
	
		
			   2001  2002  2003  2004  2005 
			 Committed/Sent for trial 80,551 83,449 84,412 79,232 80,021 
			 Committed for sentence 25,960 28,837 30,757 31,156 32,937 
			 Criminal appeals 11,818 11,144 11,180 12,099 12,022 
			  Note: Receipts include committals direct from PSD's, bench warrants executed and cases transferred in, less cases transferred out.

Family Court Centres

Sarah Teather: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs when she expects the results of the consultation, HM Court Service London Region Proposals for Network of Family Courts Centres to be announced.

Harriet Harman: As indicated in the consultation paper 16/06 entitled "HMCS London Region Proposals for a Network of Family Courts Centres", a paper summarising the responses received will be published in December 2006 by being made available online at http://www.dca.gov/index.htm The region is currently considering the suggestions made in the 60 responses received and will be using this information to inform business planning discussions for 2007-08. It is expected that the results of consultation will be announced in March 2007 as part of this business planning process. Any proposals or suggestions that the region wishes to take forward, that affect individual courthouse use, will be discussed locally with judiciary, staff and court users.

High Court

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the average length of a trial was in the High Court in the last five years.

Harriet Harman: Information of this nature is held only for trials heard in the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court and is collected during a sampling exercise each February and November.
	Figures relating to the average length of Queen's Bench trials for the five year period 2000-04 are set out in the table.
	
		
			   Average length 
			 2000 6 hours 46 minutes 
			 2001 7 hours 54 minutes 
			 2002 12 hours 48 minutes 
			 2003 13 hours 27 minutes 
			 2004 5 hours 42 minutes

Private Finance Initiatives

Mark Francois: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the total capital value is of each private finance initiative scheme overseen by her Department which has reached financial close; over what period repayments will take place; and what the total cost of repayment will be in each case.

Harriet Harman: There are a total of 11 PFI schemes providing 16 courthouses, a facility for the storage and retrieval of probate records and two IT projects. The total capital value of these schemes is c. £272 million with a projected whole life cost over their respective concession periods of c. £1,361 million. Details of each as follows:
	
		
			  Scheme  Cap value  (£ million)  Period (years)  Total cost of repayment  (£ million) 
			 Hereford, Kidderminster, Worcester and Redditch Magistrates Courts 25 25 109.4 
			 Hull, Beverley and Bridlington Magistrates Courts 19 25 117.9 
			 Derby and Chesterfield Magistrates Courts 31 25 184.5 
			 Manchester Magistrates Courts 30 25 114.8 
			 Exeter Combined Courts 15 25 76.0 
			 Ipswich and Cambridge Crown Courts 25 25 75.4 
			 Sheffield Family Hearing Centre 5 25 19.8 
			 North Somerset (Worle) and Bristol Magistrates Courts 45 25 207.0 
			 Probate Storage Facility 11 25 46.0 
			 LOCCs Project 27 10 159.0 
			 LIBRA Project 39 7 252.0 
			 Total 272 — 1,361.8

Bills (Queen's Speech)

Chris Grayling: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the name is of each Bill submitted to the Committee on Legislative Programme which was not in this year's Queen's Speech.

Hilary Armstrong: The terms of reference of the Cabinet Committee on the Legislative Programme (LP) are to consider legislation and related matters. Information relating to proceedings of Cabinet Committees is generally not disclosed as to do so could harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion.
	My right hon. Friend the Member for Blackburn (Mr. Straw) is Chair of LP. I refer the hon. Member to the written ministerial statement made by my right hon. Friend on 16 November 2006,  Official Report, columns 7-8WS, listing Bills in the legislative programme, including those not referred to in the Queen's Speech. A summary of the proposed content of each of the Bills in the programme has been placed in the Library for the reference of Members. It can be found on the website of the Leader of the House of Commons at:
	http://www.commonsleader.gov.uk

Special Advisers/Consultants

Oliver Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 
	(1)  how much was spent on external consultants and advisers by  (a) the Prime Minister's Office and  (b) the Cabinet Office in each year since 1997-98; and what the expected costs are in 2006-07;
	(2)  how much was paid in fees by  (a) the Cabinet Office and  (b) the Prime Minister's office to external consultants in the 2005-06 financial year.

Gordon Prentice: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much was spent by her Department on consultants in each year since 1997.

Hilary Armstrong: The Prime Minister's Office is an integral part of the Cabinet Office and therefore the answer provided is for the whole of the Cabinet Office including the Prime Minister's Office.
	Expenditure on external consultants and advisers incurred in my Department in each year since 1997-98 is shown in the following table.
	
		
			   £ million 
			 1997-98 5.5 
			 1998-99 7.4 
			 1999-2000 10.2 
			 2000-01 10.9 
			 2001-02 16.9 
			 2002-03 13.4 
			 2003-04 15.9 
			 2004-05 12.7 
			 2005-06 22.0 
		
	
	The increased costs between 2004-05 and 2005-06 relate mainly to expenditure on shared services feasibility work, SCOPE cross-departmental information strategy, development of the Government Gateway, departmental capability reviews and advice on our land and buildings.
	Costs incurred on external consultants and advisers in 2006-07 will be available only when the Department's resource accounts are fully audited and laid before Parliament. This is expected to be before the 2007 summer recess.

V

John Hayes: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what programmes to encourage volunteering are being undertaken by V; and how much match funding has been provided to V since its launch.

Edward Miliband: V has undertaken the Grants 1 funding round, with short-term projects being awarded funding in July 2006 and part-time, long-term or volunteer development teams being funded in October 2006. The Grants 1 funding round has created just over 42,000 volunteering opportunities.
	The volunteering projects cover a wide range of programmes with traditional organisations extending their reach to young people and new projects which involve young people as never before. Opportunities range from activities with large, well-known charities such as the British Red Cross, which is providing opportunities in peer education where young people deliver first aid training or humanitarian education to other young people, to small, local projects such as the opportunities provided by Youth A.I.D Lewisham, a community based voluntary youth organisation which provides advice, information and development services across the borough. Programmes funded through the v grants have a wide geographical spread across England and are found in both urban and rural areas to increase opportunities to volunteer for young people in a variety of communities.
	The programmes provide opportunities for young people to engage with their community, develop skills, increase confidence, meet other young people, reduce social exclusion and extend their opportunities for training to increase opportunities for employment.
	V has received £3,450,000 in match funding to date, creating 19,527 volunteering opportunities and has pledges from the private sector worth £17.1 million.

Asylum Seekers

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the percentage of asylum seekers who arrived in the United Kingdom between 2005 and 2006 who now reside in Wales.

Liam Byrne: The percentage of asylum seekers who arrived in the United Kingdom between 2005 and 2006 that now reside in Wales is not available and could be produced only at disproportionate cost.
	Statistics on the location of asylum seekers in the UK are linked to the available information on the support that the asylum seeker receives. The number of asylum seekers in receipt of support from IND are published on a quarterly and annual basis, broken down by Government office region and local authority. The latest publication covering the third quarter of 2006 is available on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics website at:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.
	Further breakdowns by parliamentary constituency are also available from the Library of the House.

Criminal Records Bureau

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment the Government have made of the effect of records kept by the Criminal Records Bureau on the ability of those on whom records are kept  (a) to find employment and  (b) to adopt children; and if he will make a statement.

Joan Ryan: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) does not hold criminal records or records of allegations. Rather, in processing disclosure applications, the CRB obtains information held by the police service and from lists held by the Department for Education and Skills and the Department of Health which contain details of individuals who are considered unsuitable to work with children and vulnerable adults. Where enhanced disclosures are made, police information may include intelligence considered relevant to the application by the chief officer of police responsible for the data.
	A disputes procedure exists where the accuracy of disclosed material can be challenged by the applicant. In addition, an individual may apply to the police for information to be deleted from the record. The retention or disposal of intelligence material held by the police is entirely a matter for the chief officer.
	Independent research shows that, of the 2.7 million checks completed in 2005, over 190,000 revealed conviction or other information on an individual. In nine out of ten cases, this information did not result in the individual being refused the position he or she sought. The majority of the convictions that resulted in the job offer being withdrawn were for theft and violence. Statistics are not held centrally on the success of applicants seeking to adopt.
	The CRB offers guidance to users of the service in the form of a code of practice and explanatory guide, which states that disclosure information should only be used in the context of a policy on the recruitment of ex-offenders, designed to protect applicants from unfair discrimination on the basis of non-relevant past convictions. However it is ultimately for an employer to decide an applicants suitability for a particular role.

Departmental Targets

Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what formal targets his Department was set by the Treasury in each year since 1996.

Liam Byrne: The new public service agreement targets for the Home Office for 1998 were set by Treasury as part of the comprehensive spending review,
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./spending_review/spend_csr98/spend_csr98jndex.cfm
	and announced through the white paper.
	http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm40/4011/4011 .htm
	Formal targets are set during the spending review round which outlines the Department's plans for a three year period.
	Targets for the remaining SR periods can be found on the following sites:  SR2000
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./spending_review/spending_review_2000/spending_revi ew_report/spend_sr00_repchap10.cfm
	 SR2002
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./Spending_Review/spend_sr02/report/spend_sr02_repc hapl0.cfm
	 SR2004
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./media/E99/79/sr04_psa_ch6.pdf.

Foreign Prisoners

Tony Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign nationals are in prison, broken down by country of origin.

Gerry Sutcliffe: Information on the numbers of foreign nationals held in prison establishments in England and Wales, broken down by country of origin, can be found in the following table drawn from data held on the Prison IT system, showing the position on 30 September 2006.
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system, and although shown to the last individual the figures may not be accurate to that level.
	
		
			  Population in prison by nationality and sex, England and Wales  30 September 2006 
			  Nationality  Male  Female  Total 
			 All nationalities 74,782 4,573 79,355 
			 UK nationals 64,063 3,539 67,602 
			 Foreign nationals 9,988 940 10,928 
			 Not recorded 731 94 825 
			 
			  Total Africa 2,708 342 3,051 
			 Angola 69 5 74 
			 Burundi 9 1 10 
			 Dahomey (Benin) 10 0 10 
			 Botswana 4 0 4 
			 Ivory Coast 26 2 28 
			 Central African Republic 7 0 7 
			 Congo 106 3 109 
			 Cameroon. United Republic 33 2 35 
			 Cape Verde 1 0 1 
			 Algeria 206 0 206 
			 Egypt 9 1 10 
			 Ethiopia 68 2 70 
			 Ghana 177 29 206 
			 Gambia 40 3 43 
			 Guinea 15 0 15 
			 Equatorial Guinea 1 0 1 
			 Guinea/Bissau 3 0 3 
			 Kenya 50 5 55 
			 Liberia 27 4 31 
			 Libya 31 0 31 
			 Morocco 48 3 51 
			 Mali 1 0 1 
			 Mauritania 1 0 1 
			 Mauritius 24 1 25 
			 Malawi 11 1 12 
			 Mozambique 1 0 1 
			 Namibia 4 1 5 
			 Niger 3 0 3 
			 Nigeria 762 212 974 
			 Rwanda 15 0 15 
			 Seychelles 1 0 1 
			 Sudan 53 1 54 
			 Sierra Leone 86 5 91 
			 Senegal 9 0 9 
			 Somalia 335 14 350 
			 Chad 1 0 1 
			 Togo 8 4 13 
			 Tunisia 18 0 18 
			 Tanzania 18 0 18 
			 Uganda 84 6 90 
			 Western Sahara 1 0 1 
			 South Africa 139 23 162 
			 Zambia 14 2 16 
			 Congo, Democratic Republic 32 0 32 
			 Zimbabwe 145 15 159 
			 
			  Total Asia 1,607 94 1,701 
			 Bangladesh 197 1 198 
			 Bhutan 1 0 1 
			 Burma 4 1 5 
			 China 242 37 279 
			 Hong Kong 7 0 7 
			 Indonesia 4 0 4 
			 India 261 9 271 
			 Japan 1 0 1 
			 Cambodia 1 0 1 
			 Korea Republic of (Sth) 3 0 3 
			 Sri Lanka 157 0 157 
			 Myanmar, Union of (Burma) 1 0 1 
			 Mongolia 6 0 6 
			 Malaysia 24 4 28 
			 Nepal 4 0 4 
			 Philippines 12 4 16 
			 Pakistan 430 6 437 
			 Singapore 2 0 2 
			 Thailand 2 4 6 
			 Taiwan (Nationalist Chinese) 1 0 1 
			 Vietnam 246 26 272 
			 
			  Total Central and South America 312 56 368 
			 Argentina 3 1 4 
			 Bolivia 4 1 5 
			 Brazil 43 14 57 
			 Belize 3 0 3 
			 Chile 15 1 16 
			 Columbia 120 14 135 
			 Costa Rica 4 0 4 
			 Ecuador 12 1 13 
			 French Guyana 4 0 4 
			 Guatemala 4 0 4 
			 Guyana 30 8 38 
			 Honduras 1 0 1 
			 Mexico 13 1 14 
			 Panama 2 1 3 
			 Peru 5 0 5 
			 Paraguay 1 0 1 
			 Surinam 7 1 8 
			 South Georgia 1 0 1 
			 El Salvador 0 3 3 
			 Uruguay 3 0 3 
			 Venezuela 37 10 47 
			 
			  Total Europe 2,922 233 3,155 
			 Albania 127 4 131 
			 Armenia 4 0 4 
			 Austria 9 3 12 
			 Azerbaijan 3 0 3 
			 Bosnia-Herzegovina 6 5 11 
			 Belgium 43 4 47 
			 Bulgaria 10 0 10 
			 Croatia 10 2 11 
			 Switzerland 4 2 6 
			 Czech Republic 31 5 36 
			 Cyprus 61 2 63 
			 Germany 113 18 131 
			 Denmark 10 1 11 
			 Estonia 16 0 16 
			 Spain 74 13 87 
			 Finland 3 0 3 
			 France 154 17 171 
			 Georgia 13 0 13 
			 Gibraltar 2 0 2 
			 Greece 24 4 28 
			 Hungary 19 1 20 
			 Irish Republic 643 48 692 
			 Iceland 1 0 1 
			 Italy 117 9 126 
			 Kazakhstan 2 1 3 
			 Kyrgyzstan 4 0 4 
			 Lithuania 177 13 190 
			 Latvia 49 2 51 
			 Moldova 33 0 33 
			 Macedonia 5 0 5 
			 Serbia and Montenegro 98 0 98 
			 Malta 10 0 10 
			 Netherlands 118 29 147 
			 Norway 5 0 5 
			 Poland 240 9 248 
			 Portugal 159 13 172 
			 Romania 130 10 140 
			 Sweden 8 6 14 
			 Slovakia 18 4 22 
			 Slovenia 3 1 4 
			 Russia 104 9 113 
			 Turkey 255 1 256 
			 Turkmenistan 2 0 2 
			 Uzbekistan 3 0 3 
			 
			  Total Middle East 647 6 652 
			 United Arab Emirates 5 0 5 
			 Afghanistan 89 1 90 
			 Iran 188 3 191 
			 Israel 20 0 20 
			 Iraq 269 0 269 
			 Jordan 11 0 11 
			 Kuwait 14 0 14 
			 Lebanon 26 1 27 
			 Oman 1 0 1 
			 Saudi Arabia 12 1 13 
			 Syrian Arab Republic 3 0 3 
			 Yemen, Republic of 8 0 8 
			 
			  Total North America 102 25 127 
			 Canada 21 5 26 
			 United States of America 81 20 101 
			 
			  Total Oceania 38 4 42 
			 Australia 19 1 20 
			 Fiji 11 2 13 
			 French Southern Territories 1 0 1 
			 Kiribati 1 0 1 
			 New Zealand 6 1 7 
			 
			  Total other 7 0 7 
			 
			  Total unrecorded 731 94 825 
			 
			  West Indies 1,644 181 1,826 
			 Aruba 1 0 1 
			 Anguilla 1 0 1 
			 Netherlands Antilles 23 8 31 
			 Barbados 27 3 30 
			 Bermuda 4 0 4 
			 Bahamas 4 0 4 
			 Cuba 1 0 1 
			 Dominica 4 0 4 
			 Dominican Republic 8 2 10 
			 Grenada 27 6 34 
			 Haiti 2 0 2 
			 Jamaica 1,406 132 1,538 
			 St Lucia 23 6 29 
			 Montserrat 17 0 17 
			 St Christopher and Nevis 1 0 1 
			 St Kitts and Nevis 2 0 2 
			 Trinidad and Tobago 79 23 103 
			 St Vincent and The Grenadines 12 1 13

Freedom of Information

Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library copies of the internal Home Office guidance documents on  (a) answering parliamentary questions for written answer and  (b) responses to Freedom of Information requests.

Mark Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library copies of his Department's internal guidance documents concerning  (a) answers to written parliamentary questions and  (b) responses to freedom of information requests.

Tony McNulty: The information is as follows.
	 (a) The Home Office provides guidance to officials on written parliamentary questions through its intranet. This guidance is under review as part of the Home Secretary's commitment to reform the Home Office and to improve the way that the Department's fulfils its obligations to Parliament. I will arrange for this guidance to be placed in the Library in December following that review. In addition to this guidance, the permanent secretary meets with service heads and directors on a weekly basis at which time they provide him with an update on the Department's answering of written parliamentary questions.
	 (b) The Home Office possesses several sets of guidance on the handling of Freedom of Information requests to reflect local procedures in some parts of the Department and its executive agencies. The Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND), HM Prison Service, Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Identity and Passport Service (IPS) all possess their own guidance, while the remainder of the Department is served by a further set. I will arrange for this guidance to be placed in the Library by the end of December when a new edition of the current guidance for those parts of the Department not covered by the local guidance will be published internally.
	The HMPS guidance is already in the public domain at:
	http://pso.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/PSO_9020_data_protection_act_1998_and_freedom_of_info_act.doc.

Immigration and Nationality Directorate

Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many  (a) training days and  (b) away days were held by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in each of the last five years.

Liam Byrne: 48,969 training days were provided by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate College in 2005-06, with 33,522 provided in 2004-05. Figures are not available for earlier years.
	The figures do not represent all training undertaken by IND staff, for example by e-Learning, or by training organised locally (which is not recorded centrally).
	There is no central record of the numbers of away days.

National Offender Management Service

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what criteria are taken into account by the National Offender Management Service in deciding to award a contract to a non-public sector trust.

Gerry Sutcliffe: The National Offender Management Service manages its competitions in compliance with the appropriate European competition rules. Accordingly, the evaluation criteria will be dependent upon the scope and nature of services being competed. All tenders for a given competition will be evaluated against the same criteria. Bidders are advised of the criteria upon which their tenders will be evaluated at the time of invitation.

Police

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers per 1,000 of the population there were in Cambridgeshire in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement.

Tony McNulty: holding answer 23 November 2006
	Tables within the Home Office Statistical Bulletins on Police Service Strength contain the required information per 100,000 of the population and these data are also given in the following table. The most recent Police Service Strength bulletin can be downloaded from:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/hosb1306.pdf
	
		
			  Police officers per 100,000 of the population for Cambridgeshire police force as at 31 March 1997 to 31 March 2006 (FTE)( 1) 
			  As at 31 March:  Police officers per 100,000 
			 1997 188 
			 1998 184 
			 1999 179 
			 2000 172 
			 2001 179 
			 2002 187 
			 2003 196 
			 2004 197 
			 2005 194 
			 2006 196 
			 (1 )Full Time Equivalent figures rounded to the nearest whole number. Figures up to 31 March 2002 exclude staff on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. The figures for 31 March 2003 onwards figures include those on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. This accounts for a small proportion of the increase between 31 March 2002 and 31 March 2003; the exclusive figure for 31 March 2003 is 195.

Police

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans his Department has to change funding for the Avon and Somerset constabulary to reflect  (a) relative crime levels and  (b) the conclusions of recent departmental reviews of force funding; and if he will make a statement.

Tony McNulty: The police funding formula provides an assessment of the relative need of each police force in England and Wales. This assessment is based on the social characteristics of each police authority which are considered to affect the level of demand for police services in the community. To avoid penalising police authorities that successfully reduce crime, actual crime is not used in determining relative need.
	The police funding formula was reviewed in consultation with the police service in 2005 and a revised formula was implemented for the 2006-07 settlement. This revision incorporated more recent data from the 2001 census, changes in the structure of policing and more up to date analysis of how the characteristics of different areas affects policing demands. To avoid large changes in grant resulting from this revision, each police authority was guaranteed an increase in formula grant of at least 3.1 per cent. in 2006-07 and 3.6 per cent. in 2007-08.

Police Mergers

Ashok Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much each police authority has  (a) claimed and  (b) been granted to cover costs of changes to the plans to merge police forces.

Tony McNulty: The following table shows the amounts claimed by and the amounts offered to each of the police authorities in England and Wales in respect of the additional costs incurred on the preparatory work for police force mergers. These were included in a written statement on this subject laid before the House on 30 October 2006.
	
		
			  Amounts sought and payments offered to police authorities in England and Wales in respect of preparations for police force mergers 
			  £ 
			  Police authority  Amount sought  Payment to be made 
			 Bedfordshire 23,430 23,430 
			 Cambridgeshire 242,714 100,000 
			 Cheshire 339,767 100,000 
			 City — — 
			 Cleveland 189,986 100,000 
			 Cumbria 271,000 271,000 
			 Derbyshire 58,469 (1)35,782 
			 Dorset (for the five SW forces) 140,836 140,836 
			 Durham 67,155 67,155 
			 Dyfed-Powys 225,891 100,000 
			 Essex 169,870 100,000 
			 GMP 75,810 75,810 
			 Gwent 96,467 96,467 
			 Hampshire 11,495 11,495 
			 Hertfordshire 144,327 100,000 
			 Humberside 119,730 100,000 
			 Kent 152,042 100,000 
			 Lancashire 725,000 725,000 
			 Leicestershire 37,232 37,232 
			 Lincolnshire 287,600 287,600 
			 Merseyside 266,357 100,000 
			 Metropolitan — — 
			 Norfolk 135,729 100,000 
			 North Wales 245,020 100,000 
			 North Yorkshire 167,808 100,000 
			 Northamptonshire 85,800 85,800 
			 Northumbria 38,021 38,021 
			 Nottinghamshire 46,200 46,200 
			 South Wales 326,944 100,000 
			 South Yorkshire 30,652 30,652 
			 Staffordshire 56,317 56,317 
			 Suffolk 45,483 45,483 
			 Surrey 649,311 100,000 
			 Sussex 519,879 100,000 
			 Thames Valley 33,860 33,860 
			 Warwickshire 174,608 100,000 
			 West Mercia 89,061 89,061 
			 West Midlands 117,591 100,000 
			 West Yorkshire 104,569 100,000 
			 Total 6,512,030 3,997,200 
			 (1) Legal costs of judicial review proceedings will not be met by the Home Office.

Prisons

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost was of prison to prison transfers in each year since 2000; and if he will make a statement.

Gerry Sutcliffe: The Inter-Prison Transfer contract covers most inter-prison movements. The agreed contract price is based on an annual operating cost and therefore not directly related to volume or distance travelled.
	
		
			   Contract price (£) 
			 2000 5,122,113 
			 2001 5,251,113 
			 2002 5,501,626 
			 2003 5,647,335 
			 2004 5,798,057 
			 2005 5,989,562 
			 2006 7,673,608 
		
	
	There are also a number of prisoner moves between prisons that are arranged locally. The details of these are not held centrally.

Prisons

Crispin Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether prisoners are being informed of the option that exists by which their property can be posted to them in certain circumstances; and when this facility was first made available.

Gerry Sutcliffe: In normal circumstances, property will accompany a prisoner to court. If the prisoner decides to leave their property at the prison they are discharged from then they must make their own arrangements to collect it.
	However, Operation Safeguard, which commenced on 12 October 2006, has necessitated that local arrangements be made which may mean that property is retained at the prison. Prisoners' are informed of options available on how they can reclaim their property, which may very from establishment to establishment.
	A Prison Service Instruction on Operational Safeguard is being prepared which will allow prisoners going to court to indicate in writing how they wish their property to be returned to them in event of their discharge.

Prisons

Nigel Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of prisoners are serving life sentences.

Gerry Sutcliffe: Information from the Prison IT system, contained in Table 1 of The National Offender Management Service Population in Custody Monthly Tables for England and Wales, for the end of September 2006, and available at the following website http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/prissep06.pdf shows that there were 7,824 indeterminate sentence prisoners (i.e. those offenders sentenced to life imprisonment and Imprisonment for Public Protection) held in prison establishments in England and Wales on 30 September 2006, out of a total prison population of 79,853. This equates to 9.8 per cent. of the total prison population.
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system, and although shown to the last individual the figures may not be accurate to that level.

Prisons

Nigel Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners there are per 100,000 of the population.

Gerry Sutcliffe: From information held on the Prison IT system, and published in the Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2004, table 8.17, there were 142 prisoners per 100,000 population at 31 August 2004.
	This table can be found at the website:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb1705section8.xls
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system, and although shown to the last individual the figures may not be accurate to that level.

Prisons

Nigel Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners are substance-dependent.

Gerry Sutcliffe: Information is not collated centrally. Prisons rely on epidemiological surveys to determine levels of substance dependence.
	Studies show that around 55 per cent. of those received into custody are problematic drug-users (PDUs)—with 80 per cent. reporting some misuse; in certain prisons, up to 80 per cent. test positive for opiates on reception.
	63 per cent. of sentenced males and 39 per cent. of sentenced females reported a hazardous drinking pattern in the year before coming into prison. The numbers who are physically dependent on alcohol, which can be defined as those who need alcohol detoxification, are much lower at around 7 per cent.
	A high number of those drinking hazardously will also use alcohol as part of poly-drug misuse.

Restorative Justice/Reoffending

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of victims of youth crime participated in restorative processes in each year between 2003 and 2006, broken down by police authority; and if he will make a statement.

Gerry Sutcliffe: The Home Office does not collect statistics on the percentage of victims of youth crime who participate in restorative processes so is unable to provide the information requested.
	The Youth Justice Board does collect data and the national and regional figures are included in their annual statistics.
	The YJB has set youth offending teams in England and Wales the target of ensuring that 75 per cent. of victims of all youth crime referred to YOTs are offered the opportunity to participate, if they wish, in restorative processes with the aim of increasing victim satisfaction.

Road Safety

Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many endorsements were imposed as a result of fixed penalty notices in England and Wales for  (a) driving while disqualified by order of court,  (b) attempting to drive while disqualified by order of court,  (c) driving without reasonable consideration for other road users,  (d) using a vehicle with defective brakes,  (e) using a vehicle with defective tyres and  (f) other offences between 1997 and 2005, broken down by police force area.

Tony McNulty: The Motoring Offences Fixed Penalty Notices collection held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform identifies endorsable offences only by offence group. As such we are unable to separately identify endorsements for individual offences. However the offences of  (a) driving while disqualified,  (b) attempting to drive while disqualified and  (c) driving without reasonable consideration for other road users are not fixed penalty offences.
	Data on fixed penalty notices issued for endorsable offences by offence group and police force area can be found in the annual Home Office publication 'Offences relating to motor vehicles, England and Wales, Supplementary tables', Table 20(b) refers. The latest available is for 2004. Copies of this annual publication are available in the Library. They can also be accessed on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics (RDS) website at:
	www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/index.htm
	2005 data will be available in 2007.

Young Offenders

Rudi Vis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many juveniles were received into each young offender institution in each month in each year since 2000.

Gerry Sutcliffe: Information on the number of juvenile offenders received into prison establishments under an immediate custodial sentence in each year since 2000, and into secure children's homes and secure training establishments, is contained in the tables. The data are not shown by month of reception because the numbers are small and their accuracy at this level of detail cannot be guaranteed.
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, and although shown to the last individual, the figures may not be accurate to that level.
	
		
			  Young people under 18 years old received into secure children's homes and secure training centres between 2000 and 2005 
			  Number 
			   2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005 
			 Total for year 420 725 648 712 656 624 
			
			  Secure children's homes for receipt of young people( 1)  on reception   
			 Aldine House 4 12 13 7 18 15 
			 Atkinson Unit 15 29 24 24 29 34 
			 Aycliffe Young People's Centre 38 75 64 69 79 78 
			 Barton Moss Secure Unit 24 33 42 48 52 49 
			 Clare Lodge 14 25 19 15 6 0 
			 Clayfields House 22 39 31 27 17 30 
			 Dyson Hall 10 17 17 35 44 41 
			 Earlswood Secure Unit 2 3 5 4 4 0 
			 East Moor 33 86 76 78 77 80 
			 Hillside 23 33 29 30 37 46 
			 Kyloe House 7 7 7 5 9 10 
			 Leverton Secure Unit 5 8 10 11 0 1 
			 Lincolnshire Secure Unit 3 8 17 19 23 22 
			 Market Street 10 19 14 15 5 0 
			 Orchard Lodge 15 24 19 25 31 21 
			 Red Bank Community Home 32 67 62 64 69 85 
			 Redsands Secure Unit 9 16 11 6 0 0 
			 St. John's Centre (Tiffield) 16 32 25 27 36 5 
			 St. Catherine's Centre for Girls 3 6 1 7 2 7 
			 Sutton Place 15 12 16 29 24 26 
			 Swanwick Lodge 11 21 17 25 23 34 
			 Vinney Green 20 46 42 40 46 40 
			 Watling House 8 6 4 2 0 0 
			 Briars Hey 15 12 12 13 0 0 
			 Dales House 13 10 14 21 4 0 
			 Stamford House 27 30 33 47 9 0 
			 Stoke House 17 25 5 0 0 0 
			 Thornbury House 9 24 19 19 12 0 
		
	
	
		
			  Number 
			   2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005 
			 Total for year 397 519 506 600 658 814 
			
			  Secure training centres for receipt of young people( 1)  on reception   
			 Hassockfield STC 122 198 173 151 151 149 
			 Medway 134 164 154 260 234 241 
			 Oakhill STC(2) — — — — 68 196 
			 Rainsbrook 141 157 179 189 205 228 
			 (1) Young people is taken to mean under 18 at the time of sentencing. (2) Opened August 2004.  Source: Youth Justice Board.

Acute Hospitals

Francis Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many new acute hospital projects of more than 300 beds have been approved since 1 June 2006, and how many are being financed by the private finance initiative.

Andy Burnham: Since 1 June 2006, six acute hospital project schemes have been approved to proceed from the private finance initiative (PFI) reappraisal exercise. Four of these contain proposals for more than 300 beds.
	The PFI schemes for St. Helens Hospitals National Health Service Trust (capital value £338 million) and the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust (capital value £627 million) had their full business cases approved and reached financial close on or after 1 June 2006. Both schemes will deliver more than 300 beds each.

Audiology Services

Douglas Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the waiting time is to see an audiologist for patients living in Tendring; and how many people in Tendring are waiting to see an audiologist.

Ivan Lewis: The number of patients waiting for all audiology tests is not available. The number of patients waiting for pure tone audiometry tests are shown in the table.
	
		
			  Waiting times for pure tone audiometry at Tendring primary care trust, September 2006 
			   Number 
			 Total waiting 191 
			   
			  Waiting (weeks)  
			 0<13 128 
			 13<26 46 
			 26<52 17 
			 >52 0 
			   
			 Median (weeks) 10.2

Audiology Services

Douglas Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many audiologists there are working for the NHS in Tendring; and how many were working in each of the last five years.

Ivan Lewis: Information is not available in the format requested. The following table shows the number of audiology staff employed in Essex by national health service trusts and in England for 2004 and 2005 as data was not collected prior to 2004.
	
		
			  NHS hospital and community health services: qualified non medical audiology staff in England and each specified strategic health authority area and organisation as at 30 September 2005 
			  Headcount 
			 2004  2005 
			 England total   1,665 1,720 
			  Of which: 
			 East of England Strategic Health Authority  Q35 123 146 
			  Of which: 
			 Essex   25 43 
			  Basildon and Thurrock General Hospital NHS Trust RDD 5 8 
			  Essex Rivers Healthcare NHS Trust RDE — 8 
			  Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust RQ8 5 7 
			  Southend Hospital NHS Trust RAJ 12 16 
			  The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust RQW 3 4 
			  Notes: 1. Non-medical audiology staff belong to the healthcare scientist census group, and could not be separately identified prior to the 2004 non-medical workforce census. 2. Figures for Essex are based on the old Essex SHA area.  Source: The Information Centre for health and social care non-medical workforce census.

Audiology Services

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the Government plans to appoint a single preferred national bidder to provide the 300,000 audiology patient pathways; and if she will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: Discussions with local national health service commissioners, to ensure that the audiology procurement best meets their needs, are ongoing. It is anticipated, however, that the procurement may be divided into a number of geographical regions, encompassing several strategic health authorities, each served by a single supplier if this offers value for money to the NHS.

Audiology Services

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the Government plans for the additional 300,000 audiology patient pathways to be procured through the ISTC Phase 2 programme; whether funding has been ring-fenced for the procurement of these 300,000 pathways; and if she will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: The audiology procurement is one of the procurements within the independent sector treatment centre (ISTC) phase 2 programme. Overall, it is expected that the next phase of the programme will deliver £3 billion of elective services and £1 billion of diagnostic services per annum. The audiology procurement will contribute towards these values.
	The funding for services procured through the ISTC programme is held by local commissioners. Primary care trusts will agree local demand for audiology services and confirm the scheme is affordable within the context of their own resources before the procurement is advertised.

Equality and Diversity

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps her Department is taking to promote equality and diversity in the NHS.

Rosie Winterton: The Department has undertaken a number of activities to promote equality and diversity in the national health service and particularly to support the NHS meet its responsibilities under the various equalities legislation on race, disability and gender as well as regulations on age, religion and belief and sexual orientation. The Department's strategy for promoting equality and diversity in the NHS is to set action on these issues within the overall framework for planning and delivering the Department's and NHS's priorities.
	The Department has a detailed programme of work underway to take forward equality and human rights commitments. These include:
	Working with inspectorate bodies and equality commissions to ensure that equality and human rights issues are integrated into inspection arrangements and relevant sector specific guidance provided to help the health sector promote equality issues.
	Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health Care (DRE) is an action plan for reform of NHS mental health services—working towards equality of access, equality of experience and equality of outcome for all mental health service users. DRE's programme of change consists of three main building blocks: more appropriate and response services, community engagement and better information. As part of the DRE programme the Department commissioned the Healthcare Commission, in partnership with the Mental Health Act Commission, to undertake an annual census of ethnicity of mental health in- patients.
	The race for health programme is primary care trust-led with support from the Department equality and human rights group. It convenes a network of 14 PCTs around the country, working in partnership with local black and minority ethnic communities to improve health, modernise services, increase choice and create greater diversity within the NHS workforce. Race for health also disseminates examples of good practice across the NHS and recently published "Towards Race Equality in Health: A Guide to Policy and Good Practice for Commissioning Services". Plans are underway to recruit a new wave of PCTs to the programme.
	The pacesetters programme is headed by the equality and human rights group. This programme places equality at the heart of NHS business, organisational objectives and core values, impacting upon future health planning, performance management and delivery. The group is working with up to five SHAs to deliver equality and diversity improvements and innovations resulting in:
	patient and user involvement in the design and delivery of services;
	reduced health inequalities for patients and service users;
	working environments that are fair and free of discrimination.
	The participating SHAs are launching their local involvement in the programme from November 2006; developing and publishing "Promoting Equality and Human Rights in the NHS—a Guide for Board Members" aimed at helping non-executive board members take forward the issues of equality and human rights with regard to patients and the workforce. The guide outlines the legislative framework and the principles that underpin equality and human rights. It demonstrates the business case for promoting and delivering equality and human rights, and includes a set of prompts for boards to take stock of how fairly their organisations treat their patients and workforce. The guide is currently being revised to incorporate current and imminent legislation and will extend to include all board members not just non-executive directors. This should be available at the end of 2006;
	The leadership and race equality action plan (LREAP) is a 10-point action plan launched in February 2004. LREAP is aimed at NHS chief executives and their boards with a specific focus on health services and outcomes and challenging them to pay greater attention to meeting the service needs of people from ethnic minorities and making equality issues an important dimension of NHS strategy. A revised LREAP will be integrated into an NHS leadership document that is currently being developed;
	The Department is working with external lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) stakeholders on the development and implementation of a sexual orientation and gender identity equality strategy. A sexual orientation and gender identity advisory group is assisting with this work;
	The Department's equality and human rights group is leading a project aimed at supporting the equalities agenda through the development of single equality schemes (SES) in the NHS. The project has been set up in anticipation of possible further duties in relation to age, religion and belief and sexual orientation and plans to encourage work to pull together the different equality strands without compromising any of the individual elements in a cross cutting and coherent fashion. Project leads provide support in terms of expertise in the field of equalities legislation, facilitating partnerships and joined up working, research, sharing of good practice and producing guidance. Project leads also provide specific guidance on the disability and gender duties respectively. The organisations involved are committed to producing a single equality scheme and will collectively produce learning that identifies the different steps required to meet both the current and likely duties which will be meaningful to the host of diverse organisations within the NHS. Development and outcomes from all the programmes outlined above will be shared and disseminated throughout the NHS;
	The Mosaic project was established by the Department of Health in 2004 to promote race equality through and in procurement. The project focuses on three main areas:
	working with NHS organisations and staff, especially on workforce development issues;
	working with NHS prime or first tier suppliers and getting them to understand the legal responsibility to the RRA and review their own work practices in relation to BME communities;
	promoting the use of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and BME suppliers in particular, as a means of promoting race equality.
	The Department in collaboration with NHS Employers has published a disability equality guide which gives practical best practice advice on how NHS organisations might produce a disability equality scheme that sets out how they will meet their statutory duty to promote disability equality. The disability equality duty comes into effect on 4 December 2006; and
	In preparation for the gender equality duty which comes into force in April 2007, the Department is in the process of developing a gender equality duty guide to assist NHS organisations meet the duties of the gender duty legislation.

HIV/Tuberculosis/Malaria

Philip Dunne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of  (a) HIV,  (b) tuberculosis and  (c) malaria were diagnosed in Shropshire in each year since 1997; and how many of these were of people (i) born in the UK and (ii) not born in the UK.

Caroline Flint: The information requested is provided in the tables:
	 HIV
	Adults aged 15 and over diagnosed with HIV. By year and county of diagnosis (Shropshire), for the period 1997 to 2005. (These data represent the cumulative total as at the end of September 2006).
	
		
			   Number 
			 Total cases reported (1) 90 
			 (1) These data include individuals who have an existing diagnosed HIV infection and may include occasional duplicates for the same individual where records with different information could not be reconciled. The data are based on reports received up to the end of September 2006 and these numbers may rise as further reports are received (particularly true for more recent years).  Source: Health Protection Agency 
		
	
	Adults aged 15 and over diagnosed with HIV. By year, county of diagnosis (Shropshire) and probable country of birth, for the period 2000 to 2005. (These data represent the cumulative total as at the end of September 2006. Data on country of birth were not collected prior to 2000).
	
		
			  Country of birth( 1)  Total 
			 Born in the United Kingdom 35 
			 Not born in the UK 30 
			 Not reported 13 
			 (1) These data include individuals who have an existing diagnosed HIV infection and may include occasional duplicates for the same individual where records with different information could not be reconciled. The data are based on reports received up to the end of September 2006 and these numbers may rise as further reports are received (particularly true for more recent years).  Source:  Health Protection Agency 
		
	
	 Tuberculosis
	Cases of tuberculosis in Shropshire 1998 to 2005 by country of birth.
	
		
			  Country of birth  Total 
			 Total cases reported 149 
			 UK born 79 
			 Non UK born 43 
			 Not reported 27 
			  Data sources:  National Tuberculosis Survey (1998), and HPA enhanced tuberculosis surveillance (1999 to 2005). 1997 data were collected through the Statutory Notification of Infectious Disease system and are not comparable with the later data collection system, and have therefore not been included. 2006 data not yet available. 
		
	
	 Malaria
	Cases of malaria reported to HPA malaria reference laboratory diagnosed in Shropshire by country of birth; 1997 to 2005.
	
		
			  Country of birth  Total 
			 Total cases reported 63 
			 UK born 26 
			 Non UK born 30 
			 Not reported 7 
			  Note: Aggregated data have been used for each infection rather than annual data in view of the risk of deductive disclosure.  Source: HPA malaria reference laboratory.

Maternity Care

Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what guidance is given to hospital trusts on the minimum advisable distance between a consultant-led maternity unit and midwife-led maternity units;
	(2)  what discussions she has had with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists on a national strategy for maternity services.

Ivan Lewis: Neither the Department nor the Royal Colleges have prepared guidance on the minimum advisable distance between a consultant-led maternity unit and midwife-led maternity units. Distance alone should not be the only factor as safety, risk and travelling times are equally important. Any woman and maternity professional discussing the planned place of birth should share relevant general information, then during labour make continuing decisions taking this into account. Ultimately, care should be provided within a framework that ensures that the safety of the mother and baby are paramount and one that considers factors such as distance, travel times and weather conditions.
	The Department has been working on a delivery plan for maternity services. A maternity standard implementation advisory group, on which many stakeholders, including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG); other royal colleges and voluntary organisations are represented, has been established and has helped develop the delivery plan. We have already held one bi-lateral meeting with the RCOG with a further one scheduled later in November jointly with the Royal College of Midwives and the National Childbirth Trust, specifically to discuss this plan further. A meeting between the president of the RCOG and Mr. Lewis, the Minister for Care Services, will be held on 27 November.

Matrons

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many modern matrons were employed in the NHS in each year since 2001.

Rosie Winterton: The number of modern matrons were recorded for the first time in the 2005 national health service workforce census which showed there were 1,606 modern matrons in the NHS in England.

Mental Health Services

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds are available for working age mental health patients in Gloucestershire in  (a) low,  (b) medium and  (c) high secure units; and on how many occasions capacity has been reached or exceeded in the last two years.

Ivan Lewis: Gloucestershire does not have any local providers of high secure services as these are only provided on three sites, which are Ashworth, Rampton or Broadmoor hospitals.
	The average daily number of available and occupied secure unit mental health beds in Gloucestershire for the years 2004-05 and 2005-06 is shown in the following table.
	
		
			  Org code  Organisation  Number 
			   Gloucestershire partnerships national health service trust  
			   2005-06  
			 RTQ Available beds 12 
			  Occupied beds 10 
			  Occupation rate (percentage) 83.3 
			
			   2004-05  
			  Available beds 12 
			  Occupied beds 10 
			  Occupation Rate (percentage) 83.3 
			  Notes: 1. The latest available data are for 2005-06. 2. The Department collects the total number of available and occupied bed days in the financial year. The average daily number of available and occupied beds is calculated from these figures, so that we do not have data on the actual occupancy rate on a given day. 3. The Department collects data on all secure unit beds, with no breakdown between low, medium and high security beds.  Source: Department of Health dataset KH03

MRI Waiting Times

Andrew Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what the waiting time is for an MRI scan to investigate a trapped nerve in the neck at the Coventry and Warwick Hospital Trust.
	(2)  what the waiting time is for an MRI scan for a trapped nerve in the shoulder at the Coventry and Walsgrave hospitals.

Andy Burnham: The information is not available in the format requested. The latest available information on waiting times for MRI scans is shown in the table.
	
		
			  Diagnostic provider waiting statistics for the University Hospital of Warwickshire NHS Trust—MRI-scan (week ending 30 September 2006) 
			  Time in weeks  Number 
			 0<1 143 
			 1 <2 123 
			 2<3 150 
			 3<4 122 
			 4<5 79 
			 5<6 119 
			 6<7 125 
			 7<8 80 
			 8<9 116 
			 9<10 102 
			 10<11 84 
			 11 <12 58 
			 12<13 101 
			 13<14 83 
			 14<15 90 
			 15<16 61 
			 16<17 44 
			 17<18 5 
			 18+ 2 
			 Total 1,687

Neurology/Epilepsy

Nick Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many trained paediatric neurologists there are in England; and how many specialise in epilepsy.

Rosie Winterton: As at 30 September 2005 there were 6,680 medical staff identified as working in the paediatric specialty in the national health service in England, of these 59 were employed in paediatric neurology.
	The number of paediatric neurologists specialising in epilepsy is not collected centrally.

Neurology/Epilepsy

Nick Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what progress her Department's Government action plan on epilepsy services in England has made in addressing the problems raised in the National Sentinel Audit of Epilepsy-Related Deaths in May 2002;
	(2)  which  (a) primary care trusts and  (b) strategic health authorities in (i) Greater London, broken down by London borough, and (ii) England have (A) taken up her Department's suggestion that they review local epilepsy services in the light of the National Sentinel Audit of Epilepsy-Related Deaths findings and (B) addressed any shortfalls as part of their local delivery plans;
	(3)  what discussions her Department has had with the Royal Colleges on informing epilepsy patients about the management of and the risks associated with the condition.

Ivan Lewis: Although the specific cause of sudden death by epilepsy (SUDEP) is unknown, the risks of sudden death are considered to be greater for those patients whose epilepsy is poorly controlled. Action to reduce SUDEP has therefore concentrated on improving epilepsy services in general, raising awareness of SUDEP among those living with epilepsy and their families, and the introduction of new more effective drugs to control seizures.
	We have commissioned the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to produce clinical guidelines for the diagnosis, management and treatment of epilepsy. This guidance, published in October 2004, specifically covers the importance of informing patients and their families of the risks of sudden death in epilepsy. In addition, we have made a grant of almost £290,000 to the National Society for Epilepsy to improve support and information for people with epilepsy and their families through their Epilepsy Information Network.
	NICE has also published guidance on the clinical and cost effectiveness of new epilepsy drugs in adults (March 2004) and children (April 2004).
	The Department published the national service framework (NSF) for long-term conditions in March 2005. This focuses on improving neurological services across the country for a range of conditions, including epilepsy.
	We have made no assessment of which primary care trusts and strategic health authorities have reviewed their local epilepsy plans in light of the National Sentinel report. All local health bodies are expected to have plans to ensure they can implement the NSF for long-term conditions, their performance towards implementation will be assessed by the Healthcare Commission. In addition, all health professionals are expected to comply with NICE clinical guidelines on the treatment of epilepsy.
	We have had no discussions with the Royal Colleges on the need to inform those living with epilepsy of the risks association with this condition. However, the NICE guidance on epilepsy specifically mentions the importance of providing information about the individual's relative risk of SUDEP. This information should be part of the counselling checklist for adults with epilepsy and their families and/or carers.

NHS Hospitals (Contract Costs)

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the total cost of providing  (a) cleaning and  (b) catering services to NHS hospitals in each financial year since 1997-98.

Andy Burnham: The information is in the table.
	
		
			  £ million 
			   Total expenditure on cleaning services  Total gross cost of patient catering services 
			 2000-01 403 — 
			 2001-02 418 284 
			 2002-03 460 334 
			 2003-04 493 366 
			 2004-05 536 (1)279 
			 2005-06 616 (1)240 
			 (1) The data provided was collected from the NHS on a mandatory basis with the exception of the patient catering services cost for 2004-05 and 2005-06 which was provided voluntarily. The figures for these years are therefore not complete and not directly comparable with previous years.  Notes: 1. Both services include the salary and non-salary component costs. The cost of patient catering services excludes the cost of catering services provided to staff. 2. The data provided has not been amended centrally and the accuracy and completeness of this data is the responsibility of the provider organisation.

Patient Safety

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the impact on patient safety of her Department's recent guidance on reducing the tariff rate for emergency spells above a set threshold.

Andy Burnham: The reduced emergency tariff is intended to manage financial risk between commissioners and providers of care, and thereby ensure the continued delivery of high quality services to patients. No such assessment is needed.

Royal Free Hospital

Andrew Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the Royal free hospital trust's financial position; and if she will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: The following table provided shows the 2005-06 final outturn position and the 2006-07 month 3 and month 6 forecast outturn positions for the Royal free hospital national health service trust.
	
		
			  Organisation name: Royal free Hampstead NHS trust 
			   £ (000) 
			  2005-06  
			 Annual accounts surplus/(deficit) (4,845) 
			   
			  2006-07  
			 Month 3 forecast outturn surplus/(deficit) 16,200 
			 Month 6 forecast outturn surplus/(deficit) 16,200 
			  Sources: 2005-06 audited summarisation schedules 2006-07 monthly financial monitoring returns

Royal Free Hospital

Andrew Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what consideration she is giving to the relocation of the Royal national orthopaedic hospital, Stanmore onto the Royal free hospital trust site; and if she will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: NHS London is currently evaluating all the options and will make their recommendations in due course.

Tuberculosis

Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment her Department has made of the priority given by those commissioning services to the diagnosis and treatment of TB; and if she will make a statement.

Caroline Flint: Commissioners are responsible for commissioning services appropriate to their assessment of local needs within the resources available.
	The Department is developing a toolkit to help the national health service to implement the key points of the Chief Medical Officer's action plan 'Stopping Tuberculosis in England' (October 2004) through effective commissioning and delivery of services. The toolkit, which will be finalised shortly, will recommend that TB services should follow the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence clinical guideline published March 2006 when diagnosing and treating patients with TB.

Waiting Times

Nigel Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time was for breast cancer genetic test results in  (a) England and  (b) Lancashire in the last period for which figures are available.

Rosie Winterton: The Department does not collect data centrally on waiting times for genetic tests for inherited forms of breast cancer.
	However the Government recognise that some patients have experienced long waits for genetic tests in the past and this will have caused stress and anxiety. This is unacceptable.
	So, to improve access and cut waiting times, the genetics White Paper "Our Inheritance, Our Future—realising the potential of genetics in the NHS", published in June 2003, committed up to £18 million for NHS genetics laboratories in England. This major investment is boosting capacity and supporting modernisation in genetics laboratories, thus helping them meet the rising demand for genetic tests.
	To ensure that this investment resulted in real patient benefit, the White Paper set out new standards for genetic test turn around times, to be achieved by the end of 2006. These are:
	within three days where the result is needed urgently, for example, for prenatal diagnosis;
	within two weeks where the potential genetic mutation is already known, for example, because another family member has already been tested; and
	within eight weeks for unknown mutations in a large gene.
	This money was allocated during the last two financial years (2004 to 2006), and laboratories are working hard to get their new facilities up to speed to meet these standards.

Walsgrave Hospital

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients the NHS treated for lung disease at Walsgrave Hospital in each year since 1997.

Ivan Lewis: The information is not available in the format requested. The following table provides the count of finished consultant episodes with primary diagnosis codes associated with lung disease for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust for 1998-99 to 2004-05.
	
		
			  Count of finished consultant episodes with primary diagnosis codes associated with lung disease for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire National Health Service Trust for 1998-99 to 2004-05 
			   Finished consultant episodes 
			 1998-99 2,798 
			 1999-2000 2,730 
			 2000-01 2,467 
			 2001-02 2,361 
			 2002-03 2,451 
			 2003-04 2,616 
			 2004-05 3,176 
			  Notes: 1. Diagnosis (primary diagnosis) The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 14 (7 prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital. ICD-10 primary diagnosis codes used: Please note: Lung disease is a very non-specific term and encompasses many ICD-10 code categories and codes. A15 Respiratory TB bacteriologically and historically confirmed A16 Respiratory TB not confirmed bacteriologically or histologically A19 Miliary tuberculosis J10 Influenza due to identified influenza virus J11 Influenzavirus not identified J12 Viral pneumonia, not elsewhere classified J13 Pneumonia due to Streptococcus pneumoniae J14 Pneumonia due to Haemophilus influenzae J15 Bacterial pneumonia not elsewhere classified J16 Pneumonia due to other infectious organisms NEC J18 Pneumoniaorganism unspecified J20 Acute bronchitis J21 Acute bronchiolitis J22 Unspecified acute lower respiratory infection J40 Bronchitis not specified as acute or chronic J41 Simple and mucopurulent chronic bronchitis J42 Unspecified chronic bronchitis J43 Emphysema J44 Other chronic obstructive pulmonary disease J45 Asthma J46 Status asthmaticus J47 Bronchiectasis J60 Coalworker's pneumoconiosis J61 Pneumoconiosis due to asbestos and other mineral fibres J62 Pneumoconiosis due to dust containing silica J63 Pneumoconiosis due to other inorganic dusts J64 Unspecified pneumoconiosis J65 Pneumoconiosis associated with tuberculosis J66 Airway disease due to specific organic dust J67 Hypersensitivity pneumonitis due to organic dust J68 Respiratory conditions due to inhalation of chemicals, gases, fumes and vapours J69 Pneumonitis due to solids and liquids J70 Respiratory conditions due to other external agents J80 Adult respiratory distress syndrome J81 Pulmonary oedema J82 Pulmonary eosinophilia, not elsewhere classified J84 Other interstitial pulmonary diseases J85 Abscess of lung and mediastinum J86 Pyothorax J90 Pleural effusion not elsewhere classified J92 Pleural plaque J93 Pneumothorax J94 Other pleural conditions J95 Postprocedural respiratory disorders NEC J96 Respiratory failure not elsewhere classified J98 Other respiratory disorders P22 Respiratory distress of newborn P23 Congenital pneumonia P24 Neonatal aspiration syndromes P27 Chronic respiratory disease originating in the perinatal period P28 Other respiratory conditions originating in the perinatal period Q33 Congenital malformations of lung Q34 Other congenital malformations of respiratory system O99.5 Diseases of the respiratory system complicating pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium 2. Finished consultant episode (FCE) An FCE is defined as a period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Please not that the figures do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the year. 3. Ungrossed data Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (ie the data are ungrossed). 4. Data quality Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) are compiled from data sent by over 300 NHS trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) in England. The Health and Social Care Information Centre liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data via HES processes. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain.  Sources: 1. Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) 2. The Information Centre for Health and Social Care

Walsgrave Hospital

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the waiting time is for  (a) all minor surgery and  (b) circumcision at Walsgrave Hospital.

Andy Burnham: Waiting times data at procedure level are not available in the format requested. However, waiting times information on the waiting times for circumcisions at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire National Health Service Trust is set out in the table.
	
		
			   Number 
			 Total episodes 208 
			 Mean waiting time 83 
			 Median waiting time 68 
			  Notes: 1. Finished admission episodes A finished admission episode is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Please note that admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. 2. Main operation The main operation is the first recorded operation in the HES data set and is usually the most resource intensive procedure performed during the episode. It is appropriate to use main operation when looking at admission details, eg time waited, but the figures for "all operations count of episodes" give a more complete count of episodes with an operation. OPCS CODE: N303 Circumcision 3.Time waited (days) Time waited statistics from Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) are not the same as the published waiting list statistics. HES provides counts and time waited for all patients admitted to hospital within a given period whereas the published waiting list statistics count those waiting for treatment on a specific date and how long they have been on the waiting list. Also, HES calculates the time waited as the difference between the admission and decision to admit dates. Unlike published waiting list statistics this is not adjusted for self-deferrals or periods of medical/social suspension.  Sources: 1. Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) 2. The Information Centre for health and social care

Walsgrave Hospital

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the waiting time is for an MRI scan for a trapped nerve in the shoulder at Walsgrave Hospital.

Andy Burnham: The information is not available in the format requested. The latest available information on waiting times for MRI scans is shown in the table.
	
		
			  Diagnostic provider waiting statistics for the University Hospital of Warwickshire NHS Trust—MRI-scan (week ending 30 September 2006) 
			  Time in weeks  Number 
			 0<1 143 
			 1<2 123 
			 2<3 150 
			 3<4 122 
			 4<5 79 
			 5<6 119 
			 6<7 125 
			 7<8 80 
			 8<9 116 
			 9<10 102 
			 10<11 84 
			 1K12 58 
			 12<13 101 
			 13<14 83 
			 14<15 90 
			 15<16 61 
			 16<17 44 
			 17<18 5 
			 18+ 2 
			 Total 1,687 
			  Source: Monthly Diagnostics Collection